Want to delete all of your tweets? Cyd, an application for Windows, macOS, and Linux, automates the process for you and even gives you an offline archive. Even better: This application runs entirely on your computer, meaning you don’t need to trust a third party with access to your account in order to use it.
Cyd is a replacement for Semiphemeral, an application we’ve recommended in the past. That application, like Cyd, was built by security engineer and journalist Michah Lee. “Over 40,000 people used Semiphemeral until I was forced to shut it down after Elon Musk took over Twitter and starting charging exorbitant fees for API access,” Lee told me. Cyd doesn’t rely on X’s API, instead operating by actually opening X in a browser and automating the process of clicking the delete button. Whether you’re leaving X for Bluesky or just deleting X, it works well.
To get started, download the application; you will be asked to sign into your Twitter account.
Credit: Justin Pot
After doing that, you will be asked to build a database of your X data, which Cyd will need to find all of your tweets. The recommended way to do this is to use X’s official archive feature, which we’ve written about before. Cyd can guide you through the process—you’ll just have to click one button. Just note that X sometimes takes days to provide the archive. If you’d rather not wait, you can try allowing Cyd to build the database from scratch; just know that it might miss a few things.
Whatever method you pick, Cyd will start by creating an archive of your tweets, which live in a folder on your computer.
Credit: Justin Pot
You can browse this archive anytime and even search for tweets. It’s nice to have around. After the backup is complete, you can start deleting.
Credit: Justin Pot
The free version can delete your tweets and retweets. The paid version, which we’ll talk about more later, can also unfollow everyone you’re following, along with other features. Check the things you want to delete, then review them. After that, the process will begin. You will see your tweets flash before your eyes as they’re all deleted. And that’s it: Your tweets are gone from the web, living only in your private archive.
I asked Lee why he offers an application like this for free. “With what’s going on with X and Elon Musk, everyone should able to delete all of their tweets for free, and I want to make it easy for them to do it.” Lee told me. “Once people are familiar with Cyd, I hope they’ll subscribe if they want the extra features, like choosing to keep your popular tweets, or automatically unfollowing everyone.”
Cyd’s paid versions start at $36 a year and allow you to decide to keep certain tweets, unfollow everyone, and delete likes and direct messages. A higher priced offering for teams is coming soon.
And Lee doesn’t plan on stopping with X. “I’m planning on supporting Bluesky next,” he told me. “We’ll see after that, but likely Facebook and Reddit.”
