Samsung Messages app for SMS ends its US service in July 2026 – remember to switch soon

If you’re based in the United States (USA), an important software update is coming to Samsung.

According to Samsung US’s official website, Samsung Messages will discontinue its service to the US market as of July 2026. This was also reported on the Associated Press newswire and English-language Korean broadsheet, The Korea Times.

Affected users are advised to switch to Google Messages, available on the Google Play Store. 

Users are also reminded to set Google Messages as the default SMS app after downloading, and Android 12/13 users will also need to add the app to their Home Screen, since the OS does not automatically do so.

Samsung also compared its in-house SMS app with Google Messages and said the latter comes with added AI smarts, such as scam detection and Gemini features. 

Google Messages also comes with RCS messaging (available in Singapore), which goes beyond text-only SMS by supporting multimedia, including photos and videos. Finally, Google Messages for one account can work across multiple devices, so long as they are logged in.

Additionally, Samsung said that users on a Galaxy S26 series device or newer would not be able to download Samsung Messages from its app store, Galaxy Store, with immediate effect. All Samsung devices will also follow suit after the service discontinues.

Once discontinued, the Samsung Messages app can only send messages to emergency services or emergency contacts. Users on older Tizen OS devices (e.g. Galaxy Watch4) also cannot see full message history on their smartwatches once Samsung Messages ends its service, even if does not affect reading and sending of SMSes.

The EOS does not affect users on Android 11 or older. 

We’ve reached out to Samsung Singapore to check if this also applies to Singapore-based users. Stay tuned.