Samsung Messages Is Going Away for Good. Here's How to Save Everything First - CNET

There's a hard cutoff coming for Samsung Messages, and it's closer than most people realize. The app stops functioning for US users in July 2026, and unlike a lot of software transitions, this one doesn't offer much of a grace period, when it's gone, access to any unmigrated text history goes with it. Moving to Google Messages is the natural destination, and Samsung has made the process relatively painless for those who start early. The mistake would be treating this like a low-priority item and discovering in July that years of conversations didn't make the trip. On a page with information about the switch, Samsung points to instructions on how to swap over to Google's Messages app, including for phones that are still on Android 12 and Android 13. Samsung has historically included its own Messages app on Galaxy phones, but began transitioning toward Google Messages as early as 2021. To encourage people to switch to Google Messages, Samsung's instructions list includes new features offered by Google Messages, like RCS-enabled texting for features like typing indicators, easier group chats and sending higher-quality images. Google's Messages app also has AI-powered spam detection and spam filters, multi-device access to messages and some built-in Gemini AI features. It's also the app that most Android phones use as their default texting app, including Samsung's more recent Galaxy S26. There are other SMS texting app alternatives in the Google Play Store if you don't want to use the one made by Google. Samsung has not said when exactly in July messaging will no longer work in the app. A Samsung representative didn't respond to a request for comment. Once the app is deactivated, only messaging to emergency services will work on Samsung Messages.  While Samsung did stop including it as the default texting app in 2021, it wasn't until 2024 that Samsung stopped preinstalling the texting app alongside Google Messages. The Galaxy S26 can't download the Samsung Messages app, and other phones won't be able to download it after the app's July sunset. Samsung said users of Android 11 or lower aren't affected by the end of service, but would also likely benefit from switching to a supported texting app like Google Messages. To switch to Google Messages, the company asks users to download the app if it's not already installed and to set it as the default SMS app when prompted after launching it.  The post also notes that anyone using an older Galaxy Watch that runs on Samsung's Tizen operating system will no longer have access to their full conversation history since these watches cannot use Google Messages. Samsung said that they will still be able to read and send text messages, but the company's newer watches (Galaxy Watch 4 and later) that run WearOS will still have access to full conversations.