If Samsung Messages is still your default texting app, keep reading. The app is being deactivated for US users, and the texts, RCS conversations and message history sitting in it don’t automatically transfer anywhere. It’s all moving to Google Messages, and the migration is genuinely simple, but simple doesn’t mean automatic.
The steps that preserve your text history are ones you have to take yourself, before the deadline, and the longer you wait, the more likely it is that something gets left behind.
On a page with information about the switch, Samsung links to instructions on switching to Google’s Messages app, including for phones 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 new features, such as typing indicators, easier group chats and the ability to send higher-quality images. Google’s Messages app also has AI-powered spam detection and 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 hasn’t 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 the phone maker stopped including it as the default texting app in 2021, it wasn’t until 2024 that Samsung stopped preinstalling it 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 running Samsung’s Tizen operating system will no longer have access to their full conversation history, as 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.
