Samsung Messages shuts down today for US Galaxy users

Samsung Messages stops working today, July 6, 2026, for US Galaxy phone owners running Android 12 or newer. Samsung is automatically migrating affected users to Google Messages, ending years of the two apps coexisting on Galaxy devices.

Why Samsung is pulling the plug

Samsung stopped pre-installing its own Messages app on new Galaxy phones back in 2024, and made Google Messages the default messaging app for Galaxy devices in 2022. Samsung Messages got an unexpected reprieve in 2025 when Samsung added RCS support to the app, but the company has now decided to shut it down for good rather than maintain two competing messaging clients with overlapping features.

What changes today

For most users, the migration is quick: Samsung says the switch to Google Messages takes about two minutes. Anyone with a large message history — years of texts, photos, and group chats — should expect the transfer to take up to 24 hours to fully complete in the background.

Two features break as a side effect of the shutdown. Tizen-based Galaxy Watches, including the Galaxy Watch 3 and older models, lose the ability to view full conversation threads once Samsung Messages is gone, since those watches were built to sync with the native app rather than Google's. The "Call & Text on Other Devices" feature, which let a Galaxy phone's calls and texts appear on a linked tablet or PC, also stops working entirely.

What Google Messages adds

In exchange, migrated users get Google Messages' feature set: AI-powered spam and scam detection that flags suspicious texts before they're opened, end-to-end encrypted RCS conversations between Android users, Messages for Web for texting from a browser, and Gemini integration for drafting replies and summarizing long threads directly inside the app.

Scammers are already exploiting the switch

Security researchers are warning that scammers have started sending fake texts that impersonate the migration process, asking recipients to click a link and "verify" their account to keep their messages. Samsung's actual migration notification does not require clicking any link or entering account credentials — it happens automatically in the background. Users who receive a text asking them to verify their account to avoid losing messages should treat it as a phishing attempt and delete it without clicking.

As first reported by 9to5Google, Samsung has been notifying affected users through in-app banners since late June, and today marks the final cutover date.