How to Check and Remove Connected Apps from Google and Facebook in 2026

Did you know that dozens of apps might have access to your Google or Facebook account right now, and you probably don’t even remember authorizing most of them? Every time you tap “Sign in with Google” or “Continue with Facebook,” you’re handing that app a key to at least part of your account. And those keys don’t expire on their own (fingers crossed none of them have been doing anything sketchy in the meantime). You can learn more about how to protect your computer from hackers, spyware and viruses and understand the risks associated with catfishing on social media.

The good news: both Google and Facebook make it pretty easy to see exactly who has access, and boot out any apps you don’t recognize or use anymore. The interfaces have changed a lot since most people last checked, so this updated 2026 guide walks you through everything step by step, including some settings that didn’t even exist a few years ago. If you’re looking for social media alternatives, you might find some useful options.

How to Check Google Connected Apps

Google now organizes all your third-party connections under a section called “Your connections to third-party apps & services.” It breaks things into three distinct categories, which is actually way more useful than the old setup, once you know where to find it. You can visit the Google support page for more information on managing your account connections.

• Sign in with Google: sites and apps where you use your Google account to log in
• Linked account: other services connected to your Google Account (like a fitness tracker or cloud storage tool)
• Access to your Google Account: apps that can actually read or modify your Google data, including Gmail, Drive, and Calendar

That third category is the one to watch most closely. An app with access to your Gmail can potentially read, send, or even delete your emails. That’s a significant level of trust, and worth auditing right now if you’ve never done it before. You can also check out this YouTube video for a step-by-step guide on reviewing connected apps.

Step 1: Open Your Google Account Connections

1. Open any Google product in your browser: Gmail, YouTube, Drive, whatever you use most.
2. Click your profile picture in the top-right corner.
3. Select “Manage your Google Account.”
4. Click Security in the left-hand menu (or in the tab row at the top, depending on your screen size).
5. Scroll down to the section labeled “Your connections to third-party apps & services” and click the link to open the full Connections page.

Step 2: Review Apps You Use “Sign in with Google” For

1. On the Connections page, click “Sign in with Google.”
2. Browse the list, every site or app where you’ve used your Google account to log in will appear here. Some of these might be a real trip down memory lane.
3. Click any app to see the details: when you first authorized it and what information it can see.
4. If you no longer use or trust an app, click “Stop using Sign in with Google” → “Confirm.”

Heads up: This breaks the login connection on Google’s end, but it doesn’t delete your account on that third-party service. If you still want to use the site, you’ll need to set up a password directly with them before cutting the link. You can learn more about managing your Facebook account and Facebook’s community standards.

Step 3: Review Linked Accounts

1. Back on the Connections page, click “Linked account.”
2. This shows services where your Google Account is tied to an account on a completely different platform, think fitness trackers, productivity tools, or third-party cloud storage.
3. Click any entry to see what’s connected and what Google can access on that service (or vice versa).
4. To break the connection, click “See details” → “Delete link” → “Confirm.”

Step 4: Review Apps with Access to Your Google Data

This is the most important step, and the one most people have never checked. This section shows every app that has permission to actually read, change, or interact with the data inside your Google account. If you’re stuck wondering why an app still has access after you stopped using it, this is where to look. You can also check out this article on The Verge for more information on managing third-party apps.

1. On the Connections page, click “Access to your Google Account.”
2. Use the “Access to Google product” filter to narrow down which apps can touch specific products, Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and so on.
3. Click any app to see an exact list of what it’s allowed to do (for example, “read, send, and delete email” is a very different level of access than “view your basic profile info”).
4. If you don’t recognize an app or no longer use it, click “Remove access” → “Confirm.”

If an app looks genuinely suspicious, you have no idea how it got there or what it is, scroll to the bottom of its details page and click “Report this app.” Google will review it. Don’t just remove it and move on; reporting suspicious apps helps protect other users too. You can also learn more about fixing common issues with social media apps.

How to Check Facebook Connected Apps

Facebook has tightened up its app permissions a lot since the Cambridge Analytica era, but that doesn’t mean your account is clean. Old quiz apps, games you played once years ago, websites you logged into with Facebook on a whim and never visited again, they’re probably all still in there. Some of them may still be holding onto your profile information, which is confusing to realize but very fixable. You can learn more about managing Facebook notifications and fixing common Facebook issues.

Step 1: Go to Facebook Settings

1. Log into Facebook in your web browser.
2. Click the menu icon (the grid or three-line icon, depending on your browser) in the top-right corner of the page.
3. Select Settings & privacy → Settings.
4. In the left-hand menu, click Apps and websites.

Step 2: Review Your Active Apps and Websites

You’ll see your connected apps sorted into three tabs: Active, Expired, and Removed. Start with Active, these are the apps and sites that currently have access to your Facebook data.

1. Click the name of any app to see what it can access, your name, email, profile picture, friends list, birthday, and more may all be on the table.
2. If you want to keep the app but limit what it sees, look for visibility and permission toggles. Setting App visibility to Only me is the safest option if you’re not sure.
3. If you don’t use or trust the app anymore, check the box next to it and click Remove.
4. Facebook will ask whether you also want to delete any posts the app made on your behalf, think that one through before confirming. If the app auto-posted things you want to keep, leave them. Otherwise, go ahead and delete.

Important: Removing an app from Facebook stops it from getting new data going forward, but it doesn’t erase the data it already collected. If you’re concerned about what an app has stored about you, visit that service directly and request account deletion or data removal. Many services are legally required to honor that request depending on where you live. You can learn more about checking app permissions and reviewing connected apps.

Step 3: Clean Up Expired Apps

The Expired tab is often the messiest, and the most overlooked. These are connections that have gone dormant, but some of those old services may still hold your profile data on their servers. It takes almost no time to clean these out, and why isn’t everyone doing this regularly?

1. Click the Expired tab.
2. Check the box next to any app you want to fully disconnect.
3. Click Remove to cut it loose.

Step 4: Tighten Per-App Privacy Settings

For apps you’re keeping, it’s worth spending a minute to limit exactly what they can see. A lot of apps request way more data than they actually need to function. There’s no reason a quiz app needs your email address and your full friends list.

1. In the Active tab, click the name of an app to open its details.
2. Check the App visibility setting; this controls who on Facebook can see that you use this app. Switching it to Only me is the safest choice for most people.
3. Review the list of personal information the app can access. Items like your email address, birthday, or friends list are often optional, turn off anything the app doesn’t genuinely need.

Social Login vs. Password Manager: Which Is Actually Safer?

While you’re thinking about this stuff, it’s worth asking whether logging in with Google or Facebook is the right call in the first place. It’s a trade-off, and the answer isn’t black and white.

• Social logins are convenient and eliminate weak, reused passwords, but they put a lot of eggs in one basket. If your Google account gets compromised, every service you’ve linked through it is potentially at risk.
• Password managers (like Bitwarden, 1Password, or KeePassXC) let you generate and store strong, unique passwords for every site, without depending on Google or Facebook as the middleman. That’s what most security pros recommend.
• If you use Facebook login somewhere and plan to remove it, set up an alternative first. Adding an email-and-password login before you revoke Facebook access means you won’t lock yourself out of that account entirely.

The smartest approach: reserve social logins for services you genuinely trust and use regularly, and use a password manager for everything else. You can also learn more about enabling disappearing messages on WhatsApp and changing your Windows system language.

Tips and Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Problem: I revoked Google access, but the app still seems to work.

Revoking access removes the permission on Google’s end, but the app may have already cached some of your data locally, or it might have its own separate login session still active. To fully cut ties, go into the app itself and delete your account from there as well. You can also learn more about troubleshooting Nintendo Switch issues.

Problem: I see the same app listed in both “Sign in with Google” and “Access to your Google Account.”

That’s because they represent two separate relationships: one is the login link, and one is the data-access link. To completely remove an app, you may need to sever both. Go through each tab on the Connections page and remove the app from every section it appears in. You can also learn more about finding your WiFi password on Android.

Problem: I removed a Facebook app, but it says it still has my data.

Removing an app only stops future data sharing. It doesn’t delete the data the app already collected while it had access. You’ll need to contact the app or website directly to request data deletion. Many services are legally required to honor that request depending on your location (GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California, for example). You can also learn more about downloading movies on Android.

Problem: I removed Gmail access for an app like Outlook, and now it won’t sync.

When you remove access for an email client, it loses its ability to connect to Gmail. To fix this, go back into Outlook (or whichever app it is) and re-add your Gmail account. It’ll prompt you to sign in and grant access again through Google’s secure login flow. Follow those steps and you’ll be back in business. You can also learn more about linking Amazon Prime to Twitch.

Pro Tips

• Make it a quarterly habit: Set a reminder to run through your connected apps every three months. The list grows faster than you’d think, and a quick 10-minute audit keeps things from getting out of control.
• Skip straight to the Connections page: You can bypass several clicks by going directly to myaccount.google.com/connections in your browser.
• Watch for wide-open email permissions on Google: If an app has permission to “read, send, and delete” your Gmail, that’s a serious level of access. Only keep that kind of permission for apps you actively use and fully trust.
• Don’t overlook Facebook’s Expired tab: Old quiz apps and games from years ago are often lurking there. They may still hold old profile data. Cleaning them out is quick and worth doing.
• Automation tools are fine, just make sure they’re yours: If you’ve set up connections through tools like Zapier or Make (for things like syncing Gmail to a spreadsheet), those will appear in your Google connections too. That’s expected. Just make sure they’re tools you actually set up yourself. You can also learn more about identifying unknown callers.

Wrapping Up

Finally, you’ve done something most people never get around to, and it’s genuinely worth the effort. Cleaning up connected apps on Google and Facebook takes about 15 minutes the first time through, and much less once you make it a regular habit. You’ll have a clearer picture of who has access to your data, and the peace of mind that comes with knowing you haven’t left forgotten apps sitting on your accounts with more permissions than they need.

While you’re in security mode, this is a great moment to also enable two-factor authentication on both your Google and Facebook accounts if you haven’t already. It’s one of the single biggest wins you can get for account security with very little effort. Persistence really does pay off with this stuff.