Bad news if you have a smartphone, smartwatch or tablet galaxy and you usually use the South Korean company’s own messaging app, Samsung Messages. Samsung has announced that it will remove this application as early as next July. Come summer, the application will stop sending or receiving messages, except to emergency service numbers or emergency contacts defined on your device. The solution that Samsung advises is that you switch to Google Messages.
As Samsung explains in the statement announcing the end of the service, users will receive a notification within the app that will help them carry out the change process to Google Messages. For those who prefer to do it manually, it will be necessary to open or download the Google app from Play Store. The first time you open it, you’ll be prompted to make it your default SMS app. By pressing that button and selecting Google Messages from the list, the change will be made permanently.
The reason Samsung gives for eliminating its own messaging client is its commitment to ‘maintain a consistent messaging experience on Android’. The company claims that by switching to Google Messages, users will enjoy greater security thanks to AI-powered scam detection and spam filtering.
The change also incorporates universal RCS messagingwhich allows you to share high-quality multimedia content and see notifications that the other person is writing both with users of Android as of iOS. You’ll also have access to AI features powered by Gemini to remix photos and generate smart responses, plus multi-device connectivity to sync chats between your phone, tablet or watch.
That said, users with Android 11 or previous versions will not be affected by this change. Samsung also notes that Galaxy Watch released before Galaxy Watch 4which work with Tizen OSthey will no longer be able to show complete conversation histories in the app. These older watches, however, will still be able to send and read new text messages as they arrive.
Samsung Messages has been the default client on Samsung phones since the early days of the Galaxy line, back in 2009. The app received a huge update with the release of One UI in 2019which introduced the focus on one-handed use and dark mode.
But in 2021 it was already clear that the application would not have much further progress, since Samsung began to make Google Messages the default messaging app installed at the factory, starting with the series Galaxy S21. Then, in July 2024, the company announced that it would stop preinstalling Samsung Messages on new devices in certain regions, starting with Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6. Several months later, the series Galaxy S25 It launched completely without the pre-installed Samsung Messages app.