Back in April, Samsung announced its plans to shutter its proprietary Messages app. It shouldn't have come as too much of a shock to Galaxy users: It's been a long time since Samsung Messages was the default choice on Galaxy devices. In fact, the company didn't even ship the app with newer devices, choosing Google Messages as its new messaging standard. Galaxy S26 users can't even download the app at all.
In its initial announcement, the company said Samsung Messages would shut down sometime in July, but declined to offer a definitive date. So when July 1 hit, and the app was still working, perhaps some users felt a small sense of comfort: Maybe Samsung wasn't serious about ending the app. That, unfortunately, wasn't the case. It seems the company chose July 7 as its deprecation day, as the app is officially defunct. You can still open Samsung Messages, but if you try to send a message, you'll find the text field grayed out.
What should Samsung Messages users do now?
While Samsung Messages is no longer supported, the app isn't gone forever. As I said, you can still access it, which means you can also see your message history. And, per Samsung, you can still use the app, albeit under extremely limited circumstances. If your device runs Android 11 or something older, Samsung Messages will continue to work. In addition, all users can contact emergency services from Samsung Messages, as well as their emergency contacts. If you set someone as an emergency contact, you have a workaround for continuing to use Samsung Messages.
There is another workaround here, but I don't recommend it. As Android Authority highlights, you can uninstall app updates to restore access by heading to Settings > Apps > Samsung Messages > More options and choosing "Uninstall Updates." From here, head to the Galaxy Store, then go to Menu > Updates > Samsung Messages > More options. Here, disable "Enable auto-update" to ensure that the Galaxy Store and One UI don't check in with Samsung Messages anymore. Per Android Authority, this should let you keep using Samsung Messages as if it were not shut down, but I discourage you from doing so for more than a short period. Now that the app isn't receiving new updates, any security vulnerabilities that pop up in the future will not be patched. As such, Samsung Messages users will likely be targets for phishing and hacking, putting their devices and data at risk.
What do you think so far?
Switching to Google Messages is the best course of action
Unfortunately, the best course of action for most Samsung Messages users is to switch to Google Messages. While I imagine many Samsung Messages fans are loath to switch to Google's app, it really is the easiest transition. Once you make Google Messages your default messaging app, your conversation history will automatically begin migrating over from Samsung Messages—though Samsung says there are no guarantees about how long this process can take.
That said, there are third-party apps out there you can choose from instead. Focusing specifically on SMS apps, you'll find similar features with Textra, Chomp SMS, and Handcent SMS. The issue is that your Samsung Messages history might not automatically transfer over when moving to one of these apps. You can try a third-party SMS backup too, like SMS Backup & Restore, but again, it's not clear whether you'll be able to migrate your messages over. If your main concern is moving your messages over to a new app, Google Messages may be the best move here.