Number of accounts Google or Gmail inactive has become a problem for the company, especially since many people who own a smartphone don’t know how to use their email service or understand how their ecosystem works, so they end up with an account for every device they buy. To speed up the deletion of those who are inactive, the company has decided to set a two-year inactivity period.

The possible deletion of a Google account after two years of inactivity will take effect from today, but the company has promised not to delete any until December 2023.. The intention of this grace period may be to give users space to perform the relevant actions.

The search giant justified the measures to protect privacy and preserve personal data by saying that inactive accounts, in addition to taking up space on their servers, can be very tempting for malicious actors, especially if users have forgotten about them and, moreover, have not activated any warning mechanism against access by strangers.

Google explained via the relevant support page that “if you do not use your Google Account for 2 years, it is considered inactive and all data and content may be deleted. Before that happens, Google will give you the opportunity to take an action on your account. Google will contact you as follows:

• “Sending email alerts to your Google account.”
• “Sending notifications to a secondary email if you have one.”

“Google products reserve the right to delete your data if you do not use your account with that product for 2 years“.

Keeping your Google account active doesn’t take any miracles, as you just need to sign in to Gmail, use Google Drive, watch YouTube videos while signed in, share a photo, download an app, use a search engine, or use the “Sign in with Google” feature in a third-party app or service. In other words, to use the account normally from the perspective of a normal user.

Also there are a number of exceptions which will allow a Google Account to be considered active even if it has not been used for more than two years, consisting of:

• use to purchase current or ongoing Google products, apps, services or subscriptions.
• if it includes a gift card with a cash balance.
• if you own a published app or game with active and ongoing subscriptions or active financial transactions associated with it, such as a Google Account that owns the app on the Play Store.
• If you manage an active child account with Family Link.
• that was used to purchase a digital item, which could be a book or a movie.

It doesn’t hurt to keep track of the Google or Gmail accounts a person has in case they are likely to be deleted against their will. Although this is a drastic measure, in some circumstances it is the least bad option for both the company and the user, especially if the account or accounts have been forgotten.