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Google reached out to billions of account holders earlier this month, informing them about the changes to its rule for inactive accounts. The company has sent a detailed mailer that shares the information, the timeline or these changes and how it affects Google account holders.

Google claims that it works steadfastly to prevent unauthorised access of your accounts and for that it has adopted strong privacy practices across its products. Google has confirmed the changes are rolling out from July 20 onwards and it has also shared details about when inactive accounts and their content will be eligible for deletion.

Google Inactive Account Rule: What It States

Google says that any account which has been inactive for two years will have to adhere to these new changes. The company is aware that people have a lot of accounts that may have been left inactive for genuine reasons, and Google will inform them about the new rules and ask them to activate the account before it becomes eligible for deletion that would come into effect from December 2023. “These reminder emails will go out at least eight months before any action is taken on your account,” Google informs in its mail.

Google says that any inactive account can be reinstated by signing into any of the Google products with the account and making sure they retain the email address for the near future. Because, if you don’t adhere to these warnings, Google clearly states that if any Google account is deleted, the person cannot use the same Gmail ID to create a new Google account.

Now that you know what happens if you leave a Google account inactive for around 2 years, Google has shared tips that can help you keep an account active to avoid these changes.

How To Keep Your Google Account Active

Google has mentioned that the best way to keep an account active is to sign in to the account once every two years to avoid losing the account completely. But that’s not the only way as per the company. Here are some other activities that can help you keep a Google account running.

– Read or send an email from your Google account

– Use Google Drive to upload or download content

– Watch a video on YouTube from the same account

– Share a photo via Google Photo

– Download an app from the Play Store with your registered Google account

– You can also use Google Search for a query with this account

– Or use the Google account to sign in to a third-party app or service