All change for Galaxy

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Samsung has confirmed it is now shutting down its Messages app. Starting in July, it will be removed from app stores and will stop working, and from the Galaxy S26, it’s not even pre-installed on phones. “Upgrade to Google Messages," Samsung tells users, “to maintain a consistent messaging experience on Android.”

But just as Samsung abandons its own RCS-enabled Messages app in favour of Google’s Messages app, along comes Apple with an iPhone upgrade to do exactly that. For the first time, carrier-based messaging will be end-to-end encrypted — eventually. When all carriers have adopted the new standards.

Samsung telling Galaxy users to move to Google Messages for a “consistent messaging experience” is ironic. That’s exactly what the latest RCS upgrade is intended to deliver cross-platform. This should be the time for Samsung Messages to benefit from RCS’s upgrades, not shut down.

The new RCS protocol should provide the similar cross-platform benefits for Samsung Messages as for iMessage. Consistent rich messaging features, end-to-end encryption, and with enhanced video calling and other enhancements still to come.

But what we have now is very different. Samsung has gone all in with Google, meaning we have two global messaging platforms — Google Messages and iMessage, connected by an overly complex carrier-based architecture.

It would have been easier for Google and Apple to collaborate on compatible clients across their platforms, with just two parties to that development, rather than the patchwork quilt of global networks, all of whom need to support RCS upgrades.

Outside consumer messaging, RCS is obviously an advertising behemoth. But none of that matters for everyday phone users, and it’s not behind the feature updates — including full encryption — that are driving the development of the RCS protocol.

RCS only really makes sense as the driver for stock smartphone messaging if it has multiple parties onboard. Apple is not going to open up texting on iPhone to third-party apps, meaning iMessage remains the only client, and Google is basically doing the same. Meanwhile, WhatsApp and other over-the-tops can move more quickly and efficiently, with full control over the platform and its endpoints.

RCS is controlled by GSMA, the mobile standards setter. “RCS,” it says, “modernizes traditional SMS messaging by introducing features like group chats, file sharing, and read receipts. It aims to provide users with a more interactive and engaging messaging experience directly through their native messaging apps.”

That doesn’t make much sense with only two “native messaging apps."

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The reality is that Samsung shutting down its messaging app reflects the challenges in operating an RCS platform in this duopolistic environment. Messaging is consolidating around two tightly-controlled clients, with an overly complex bridge. RCS may be expanding its reach — but it is losing openness and control.

All of which is bad news for text messaging V2.