Samsung Should Not Discontinue Samsung Messages

For several months now, those of us who use Samsung Messages for texting on our phones have seen the message "Samsung Messages will be discontinued on Jul 6 2026. Switch to Google Messages to keep chatting with powerful features." In some respects, this is hardly surprising. As early as July 2024, Samsung Messages no longer came pre-installed on the Galaxy Z Fold6 and Z Flip6. For a time starting in September 2024, users started seeing a message to "upgrade" to Google Messages on their phones. Fortunately, those prompts would stop for a time. In January 2025, Samsung Messages was removed from the Google Play Store, although it remained available in the Samsung store. Oddly enough, Samsung Messages will remain available outside the United States. 

I already did a post on how Samsung Messages is superior to Google Messages for many of us back in February 2025, so I won't repeat myself here. I will say that I am angry at Samsung for discontinuing Samsung Messages, as are many on the Samsung Members Community. I first started using Samsung Messages when I got my first smart phone, a J3, way back when. By the time I got a new phone, an A54, Samsung Messages was no longer pre-installed on Samsung phones, but I simply transferred it from my old phone to my new phone and disabled Google Messages. I dislike Google Messages and I consider it a downgrade, not an upgrade, from Samsung Messages. Never mind the useful features Samsung Messages has that Google Messages does not, but Google Messages is one of the ugliest, most unwieldy text messaging apps I have ever seen. It is also less user friendly than Samsung Messages. I am a fan of many Google apps (I used Google Maps until they started labelling "the Gulf of Mexico" with an incorrect name), but they really dropped the ball with Google Messages.

Now I know that Google Messages has support for RCS (Rich Communications Services, but I actually hate RCS and really have no desire to use it. If I want my texts to look like chat, then I'll use a chat client, not an text message app. Too, I have to point out that Google already has a a bit of a choke hold when it comes to Android apps. Samsung Messages being discontinued means there is one less alternative to a Google app. 

Of course, much of what angers me is that Samsung often has a lot of bloatware on their phones. I don't use Bixby, Samsung Health, Samsung TV Plus, or Samsung Wallet, most of which can't be uninstalled, although fortunately they can be disabled. Instead of disabling these, Samsung is insisting on discontinuing one of the Samsung apps people actually use. What are they going to do next? Discontinue Samsung email or the Samsung browser? All the while insuring we keep Bixby and Samsung Wallet?

I still don't know what I plan to do come July. I really don't want to "downgrade" to Google Messages. I have considered Textra, but I haven't heard much about it. At any rate, I will miss Samsung Messages.