How do I make my Twitter account private?

Go to Settings and privacy, then Privacy and safety, then Audience and tagging, and turn on Protect your posts. From then on, only your approved followers can see your posts, and new followers have to send a request.

Can people who already follow me see my posts after I go private?

Yes. X's help center says accounts that followed you before you protected your posts can still see and interact with them. To cut someone off, remove them as a follower or block them.

Can a private X account be found in search?

Your profile can still be found, but your posts can't. X's help center says protected posts are only searchable on X by you and your followers and don't appear in search engines like Google.

Can followers repost a private account's posts?

No. According to X's help center, followers can't use the Repost icon to repost or quote protected posts. They can still take screenshots, so protection isn't a guarantee of secrecy.

What happens to pending follow requests when I make my account public?

They are not accepted automatically. X's help center says any requests left pending when you unprotect your posts will need to follow you again, so approve the ones you want first.

Can people see my likes on a private account?

No, but that's true for every account now. X made likes private for everyone on June 12, 2024, so only you can see the posts you've liked, while a post's author can see who liked it.

Does making my X account private delete my old posts?

No. Your old posts stay on your profile but become visible only to your followers. If you make the account public again, X's help center says previously protected posts become public too.

How to Make Your Twitter (X) Account Private in 2026

To make your Twitter (X) account private, open Settings and privacy, go to Privacy and safety, then Audience and tagging, and turn on Protect your posts. From that moment, only your followers can see your posts, new people have to send a follow request you approve, and your posts drop out of public search and Google. Turning the same setting off makes the account public again.

X doesn’t call it a private account. Its help center uses “protected posts”, and the setting is labeled Protect your posts. This guide walks through the steps on iPhone, Android and the web, exactly what changes when you protect your posts, what stays visible, and what to check before you go public again.

How to make your X account private on iPhone and Android

These steps follow X’s help center page on protecting posts, last updated in September 2026.

iPhone and iPad

Tap your profile photo in the top menu, then tap Settings and privacy.
Tap Privacy and safety.
Under Audience and tagging, turn on the slider next to Protect your posts.

Android

In the top menu, tap your profile icon or the navigation menu icon (whichever you see), then tap Settings and privacy.
Tap Privacy and safety.
Under Audience and tagging, check the box or turn on the slider next to Protect your posts.

The app may ask you to confirm. Once it’s on, a small lock icon appears next to your name on your profile and on your posts.

How to make your X account private on the web

On x.com, click More in the side menu.
Click Settings and privacy.
Click Privacy and safety.
Open Audience and tagging (on the web this section may read Audience, media and tagging).
Check the box next to Protect your posts.

The change applies to your account everywhere, so you only need to do it once on one device.

What changes when you protect your posts

X’s help center lists what happens once your posts are protected. Here it is in one place:

	Public account (default)	Protected account
Who sees your posts	Anyone, logged in or not	Only your followers
New followers	Follow instantly	Send a request you approve or deny
Post links	Open for anyone	Only open for your followers
Reposts and quotes	Anyone can repost or quote	Nobody can repost or quote them
X search	Posts appear in search	Only you and your followers can find them
Google and other search engines	Posts can appear	Protected posts don’t appear
Your replies	Visible to anyone	Only your followers see them
Your likes	Private for every account since 2024	Private

A few of these deserve a closer look.

Existing followers keep access. According to X’s help center, accounts that followed you before you protected your posts can still view and interact with them unless you block them. Going private doesn’t reset your follower list. If there are people you no longer want reading along, remove them as followers or block them first.

Your replies go quiet. X’s help center says replies you send to an account that isn’t following you won’t be seen by that account, because only your followers can see your posts. If you reply to strangers, brands or support accounts, they won’t see it while you’re protected.

Nobody can repost you. Followers can’t use the Repost icon to repost or quote your protected posts. That limits how far your posts spread, which is the point, but it also means your posts won’t travel beyond your followers.

Old public posts become private too. X’s help center says posts you published before protecting them stop being public and drop out of public X search. One exception: someone who already had a post on their Home timeline before the change may still see it there, but they can’t interact with it or open its details.

What a private account doesn’t hide

Protecting your posts is a strong setting, but it isn’t a lock on everything. X’s help center is upfront about the gaps:

Your profile stays visible. Your name, @username, profile photo, header, bio, location, website and follower counts can still be seen by anyone. Only your posts are protected.
Followers can screenshot. X notes that followers may capture images of your posts and share them.
Media links aren’t protected. If a follower copies the direct link to a photo or video you shared, X says anyone with that link can view it.
t.co links work for anyone. Links in protected posts are shortened through t.co, and X says anyone with that short link can reach the destination.
Connected apps may see your posts. Third-party apps you’ve authorized can still access your protected posts. Review them under Settings and privacy, in the Apps and sessions section, and revoke anything you don’t use.
Search engines may lag. Copies of old public posts can stay in Google for a while. X says it can’t remove content from sites other than x.com.

So if your goal is to hide something specific, delete it rather than relying on protection alone. If your profile details are the problem, change them too. Our guides on changing your X username and writing an X bio cover those fields.

What about likes?

People often make an account private to hide their likes. That’s no longer necessary. Since June 12, 2024, likes on X have been private for everyone: only you can see the posts you’ve liked, and a post’s author can see who liked it. The like count on each post is still public. Our explainer on why the Likes tab disappeared has the details.

How to manage follow requests

Once you’re protected, new followers arrive as requests. According to X’s help center:

Tap your profile icon in the top menu.
Tap Follower requests.
Tap the checkmark to approve a request, or the X to deny it.

If you don’t see a requests notification, either nobody has asked or your posts aren’t actually protected. X also says that if you got an email about a pending request but can’t find it, the person probably cancelled it.

Approve people you actually know or want reading your posts. A request from an account with no photo, a random handle and no posts is often spam, and you lose nothing by denying it. For how X itself treats spammy behavior, see our guide to X shadowbans.

How to make your X account public again

Turn off the same setting:

iPhone and Android: Settings and privacy, Privacy and safety, Audience and tagging, then turn off Protect your posts.
Web: More, Settings and privacy, Privacy and safety, Audience and tagging, then uncheck Protect your posts (the help center calls it Protect my posts on the web).

Before you switch, do two things:

Clear your follow requests. X’s help center says pending requests aren’t accepted automatically when you unprotect your posts. Anyone left pending will have to follow you again, so approve the ones you want first.
Review your old posts. Unprotecting makes every previously protected post public, including ones you wrote expecting only followers to read them. Delete anything you wouldn’t want strangers or search engines to see.

Should you make your account private?

Protection is the right call when you want a smaller, known audience: a personal account for friends, an account you use to follow news without being found, or a break after unwanted attention. It’s a poor fit when you want reach.

A protected account can’t be reposted, doesn’t show up in search for non-followers, and its replies are invisible to the people you reply to. That makes it close to impossible to grow. It also rules out most things that depend on public reach, such as engagement from people who don’t follow you. If you want a public presence and a private one, X lets you run several accounts and switch between them; our guide on how to log out of X covers adding and switching accounts.

If unwanted attention is the problem rather than visibility, try narrower tools first:

Mute words, hashtags or accounts you don’t want to see. Our guide on how to mute words on X covers the options.
Block specific accounts. Since a 2024 change, X’s help center says blocked accounts can still see your public posts but can’t like, reply to or repost them, follow you or message you. If your posts are protected, blocked accounts can’t see them at all.
Limit replies on individual posts so only people you follow or mention can respond.

Need the full picture of what X restricts on public accounts? See X limits explained.

Key takeaways

Make your X account private with Settings and privacy, Privacy and safety, Audience and tagging, Protect your posts.
Only followers can see protected posts; new followers must send a request.
People who already followed you keep access unless you remove or block them.
Protected posts can’t be reposted or quoted and don’t appear in Google or public X search.
Your profile details stay public, and followers can still screenshot what you post.
Likes are private for every account since June 2024, so you don’t need to go private to hide them.
Before going public again, approve pending requests and review old posts, because everything becomes public at once.