How to Make a Twitter Account Private

You like to tweet and use Twitter, but you don’t want anybody to see your profile and tweets. Fortunately, there is a solution, switch to a private Twitter account. When you have a private account, only the people that follow you can see what you like, tweet, or follow on Twitter.

But how do you switch to a private account? The process is pretty similar to switching to a private profile on other social media networks. You can find the necessary steps to do so in this article.

How to Make Your Twitter Account Private from a PC

When you join Twitter, you can choose whether your Tweets are public or private. The setting to make your profile private is called Protect Your Tweets. When new followers seek to follow you, you’ll receive an invitation, which you may accept or deny if your Tweets are protected. Unless you explicitly prohibit them, accounts that began following you before you began protecting your Tweets will still have access to and interaction with your protected Tweets.

You can switch between protected tweets to unprotected at any time. This can be done over the mobile app or the Twitter website. To make your Twitter account private using a PC, the steps are:

1. Log in to your Twitter account using your web browser.
   
2. On the left side of the screen, click the Notifications tab and then the little gear symbol to the right of it. It will take you to your Settings page.
   
3. To the right of your username, choose the Privacy and safety tab. This will provide a list of available settings.
   
4. Click Protect your Tweets, and a pop-up window will appear requesting confirmation that you wish to make your Twitter account private.
   
5. At the bottom of the screen, click Protect and confirm by typing your password.
   

How to Make Your Twitter Account Private from the iPhone or iPad App

You can also change your privacy setting from your iPhone app. Follow these steps to do so:

1. Launch the Twitter app.
   
2. At the top of your screen, touch the gear icon to access your account settings page to the right of the Twitter search bar.
   
3. Select Privacy and safety from the drop-down menu next to your username.
   
4. Adjust the slider next to Protect your Tweets. It will turn green, indicating that the function is enabled and your tweets are protected/private.
   
5. When you’re finished, tap on Done. Your tweets have been secured.

Keep in mind that while making your Twitter account private prevents new visitors from seeing your tweets, the function is not retroactive. This means that any followers you acquired before setting your account to private will continue to view your tweets. However, you can delete accounts from your following list if you want your tweets hidden from them.

How to Make Your Twitter Account Private from the Android App

Changing your account privacy settings from an Android app is very similar to changing them from an iOS app. The steps are also pretty similar. To switch your Twitter profile to a private account, the steps are:

1. Open the Twitter application.
   
2. To the right of the Twitter search bar at the top of your screen, press the gear symbol to open your account settings page.
   
3. From the drop-down option next to your login, select Privacy and safety.
   
4. Adjust the slider next to Protect your Tweets so that it becomes green, indicating that the feature has been activated and your tweets have been protected.
   
5. Once you’ve completed the steps, hit Done. You’ll need to enter your Twitter password.

As mentioned before, when it comes to followers that you had before changing the privacy setting, they can still see your tweets. On the other hand, you can remove accounts from your following list if you wish your tweets to be kept private from specific accounts.

Additional FAQs

How Can I Unprotect My Tweets?

To unprotect your Tweets, just follow the already mentioned steps to get to the privacy setting.

1. Toggle the slider next to Protect your Tweets off in the Twitter for iOS and Twitter for Android applications to prevent your tweets from being protected.

It’s important to check your current follower requests prior to making your Twitter posts public. Any requests that are left unanswered will not be automatically approved. If you leave a pending request, those accounts will be required to request to follow you once again.

Please keep in mind that unprotecting your Tweets will result in any previously protected Tweets becoming publicly available.

What Will Change When Switching to a Private Twitter Account?

Ensure that you understand the implications of keeping your Twitter account and tweets private before making the decision to do so. When you choose to keep your tweets private, other users will have to request to follow you, and you will have to confirm all requests before they will be accepted.

Only followers who have been approved will be able to see your tweets. Other users will not be able to retweet your messages unless they follow you. Moreover, only searches done on Twitter by your approved followers will return results for your tweets since they will not appear in any Google searches at all.

Your Twitter profile will just display your name, profile picture, and bio information at this time. Unless you send them to your approved followers, any @replies you send will not be seen by anyone else. For instance, if you tweet a celebrity, they will not be able to see it since you have not given them permission to follow you.

Anything you tweeted when your account was open to the public will now be hidden and will only be visible or searchable by your approved followers, as opposed to the general public. Finally, to share permanent links to your tweets with your authorized followers, you must first have them approve your account.

Why Are My Tweets Protected but Still Showing Up in Search Results?

After you have protected your Tweets, only you and your followers will be able to read your updates and see your Tweets when searching for them on Twitter.

These Tweets will no longer be visible to the general public or displayed in public Twitter search results if you previously had them visible to the general public. On the other hand, unprotecting your Tweets will result in any once protected Tweets being made public.

However, if your tweets ended up on a different platform, they might still appear in search results. When it comes to content on other web pages, Twitter does not have the capacity to remove it.

Tweet in Private

Now that you know how to switch to a private account, your tweets will no longer be available to the general public as they were previously. Your tweets will now only be visible to individuals who already follow you. Moreover, anyone who wishes to follow you will have to send you a request, which you will have the option to approve or refuse, depending on your preferences.

But your tweets may be screenshotted and posted publicly by others, as Twitter points out as a worst-case scenario. Nonetheless, the feature should be sufficient if you prefer not to have random accounts on the internet viewing and commenting on your tweets.

Is your Twitter account private or public? Do you think having a private Twitter account is better than having a public one? Let us know in the comment section below!