Samsung Messages officially shut down today July 6, 2026 and if you’re still using it on a US Galaxy phone running Android 12 or higher, sending texts through the app is no longer possible. Samsung announced the discontinuation back in April, though without a firm date at the time. The July 6 cutoff is now here, and the transition to Google Messages is no longer optional.
This didn’t happen overnight. Samsung had been pulling back from its own messaging app since 2021 first demoting it from default status, then dropping it from pre-installation on newer phones, and finally blocking Galaxy S26 users from downloading it entirely. Google Messages became the default on Samsung devices back in 2022, and Samsung stopped pre-installing Messages in 2024. July 6 is simply the last step in a retreat that’s been years in the making.
The reason behind it comes down to infrastructure. Samsung Messages depended on individual carriers to host and maintain the RCS servers that power modern messaging features. When a carrier let its backend slip, the app silently fell back to standard SMS and MMS with no warning. Google solved that problem by acquiring Jibe Mobile in 2015 and building a platform carriers could use to offload their RCS backend entirely.
After the cutoff, Samsung Messages stays on the device but stops functioning with no outbound texts, no incoming media, no group chats, except for emergency contacts. All existing messages and conversations transfer automatically to Google Messages, though the process can take up to 24 hours depending on data volume.
One group hits a real snag here. Tizen-based Galaxy Watches released before the Galaxy Watch 4 cannot run Google Messages, meaning those users lose full conversation history access on their watch with no documented workaround. Galaxy Watch 4 and newer are unaffected.
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