Samsung Messages Is Shutting Down, but There Are Ways to Keep Using It

It's officially the end of an era for the Samsung Galaxy community: Samsung is discontinuing its messaging app. If you're a Samsung Messages user, the company says you should plan to migrate to Google Messages to "upgrade your messaging experience."

This deprecation isn't taking effect immediately, however. According to Samsung's official end of service announcement, the company will discontinue Samsung Messages in July 2026. That means you still have roughly three months to keep using the app, if it happens to be your messaging client of choice. That said, the company is encouraging users to set Google Messages as their default messaging app today to "maintain a consistent messaging experience on Android." Samsung says the app will tell users when service will be discontinued.

Samsung is really pushing Google Messages in this end-of-service announcement. The company touts the app's features, like Scam Detection, RCS messaging, AI features, and cross-platform connectivity, so you can pick up another Android device and keep chatting. To their credit, some of these features do make Google Messages the stronger messaging app compared to Samsung Messages—in particular, RCS support. Samsung Messages users are stuck with SMS chats, which limits conversations in terms of both security and functionality. SMS chats don't support high-resolution photo and video sharing, nor do they manage modern group chats well. Crucially, they aren't encrypted, which puts your conversations at risk. While not all RCS chats are encrypted, the ones that are protect your conversations from would-be attackers.

It's not like this decision came totally out of the blue. If you've bought a new Samsung Galaxy device in recent years, you'll notice that Samsung Messages didn't come preinstalled. Instead, you had to seek it out and install it yourself from Samsung's Galaxy Store. Samsung says Galaxy S26 devices can't even download the app, and that following its deadline, no devices will be able to download the app.

Also important to note for some users: Tizen OS watches (watches that were launched before Galaxy Watch4) can't run Google Messages. These watches will not be able to display full message conversations after July 2026. However, you'll still be able to read and send messages.

You can keep using Samsung Messages after the deadline

Not everyone will need to move to Google Messages, however. If you're using an Android device running Android 11 or older, Samsung says you are not affected by this end of service. This will likely impact a small fraction of the Galaxy community, seeing as we're currently on Android 16 (or One UI 8, in Galaxy world). But if you do have an older Android device, you can keep using the app.

In addition, Samsung outlines some specific situations where the app will continue to send messages—even on phones running Android 12 or newer. If you try to send a typical text, it won't go through. However, you will be able to send messages to emergency service numbers. If you text 911 on a Galaxy phone with Samsung Messages, it will work, according to Samsung.

That makes sense—Samsung likely doesn't want to deal with a situation where someone tries to contact emergency services on its unsupported app and cannot get help. But what I find even more interesting is that Samsung Messages will also still work when texting emergency contacts. If you've defined someone as an emergency contact on your Galaxy, you'll be able to text them still.

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