Samsung Has Bad News For Anyone Who Uses Its Built-In Messages App

If you own a Samsung smartphone, chances are high that you are probably using an app called "Samsung Messages" as your default messaging tool. This isn't really surprising, given that the app was preinstalled on almost every Samsung smartphone sold before 2026. The app was great for basic messaging features, and most people never felt the need to switch to another app. Starting mid 2026, however, this is set to change. Samsung recently confirmed that it is discontinuing the Samsung Messages app starting July 2026.

Once discontinued, the app will no longer remain fully functional, and most people will need to look for an alternative. Samsung has already started promoting Google Messages as the preferred alternative. Samsung has yet to reveal the actual date of discontinuation for Samsung Messages, with the company confirming that Samsung Messages users will be notified about the same within the app. Nevertheless, if you happen to use Samsung Messages on a daily basis, now would be a good time to switch to Google Messages.

The effect of Samsung's decision to pull the plug on its own messaging app will vary among users. The group most affected by this change would be folks who use Samsung Messages as their primary texting app. Once discontinued, Samsung Messages will enter read-only mode. While it will still allow users to read received texts, they will not be able to type a reply, except between emergency services, and people listed as emergency contacts.

For others — who only used the app to read OTPs and verification texts the change would not be drastic. This is largely true for Samsung users outside of the U.S., where people have moved on to popular platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram for daily messaging.

While Samsung Messages will stop being fully functional on newer Samsung smartphones (and devices), people still using very old Samsung smartphones (Android 11 or older) will continue to have access to the app. New Samsung smartphones released in 2026 come with Google Messages preinstalled, so no changes are needed. In fact, these newer devices will not even be able to install Samsung Messages. The Samsung Messages app is currently downloadable from the Galaxy App Store, and older Samsung devices would be able to download the same until the day of discontinuation. 

Other Samsung devices affected by this change are older generation Samsung watches powered by Tizen OS. These watches do not support Google Messages, and after the discontinuation of Samsung Messages, these devices will lose the ability to view the entire conversation history on the watch. These watches, however, will still be able to send and receive texts normally.

Another set of Samsung devices affected by this change are smartphones released before 2022. On these Samsung phones, switching from Samsung Messages to Google Messages may disrupt ongoing RCS texts. If the party at the opposite end is also using Samsung Messages, it is recommended that both parties switch to Google Messages to ensure seamless communication.

Samsung's decision to finally pull the plug on Samsung Messages is not entirely surprising to people familiar with the company. Samsung has already been urging users to switch to Google Messages, and in December 2024, they also announced that Samsung Messages would drop support for RCS texts by June 2025. Well over a year since that date, it seems, the end of Samsung Messages is finally here.