Samsung's Messages App Is Shutting Down (androidcentral.com)
- Reference: 0181388088
- News link: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/26/04/06/1651243/samsungs-messages-app-is-shutting-down
- Source link: https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/samsung-galaxy/samsung-messages-app-has-a-shutdown-date
> [...] Samsung says users can switch to Google Messages as their default app to maintain a consistent Android messaging experience. The fine print also states that once the app is discontinued, "sending messages via Samsung Messages on your phone will no longer be possible, except for emergency service numbers or emergency contacts defined in your device."
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> Samsung also notes that users will no longer be able to download the Messages app from the Galaxy Store once it is discontinued. Newer devices, including the Galaxy S26 series, already do not support installing Samsung Messages. It is, however, worth noting that users on Android 11 or older are not affected by this change and will still be able to use the Samsung Messages app on their devices.
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> [...] Samsung also warns that on some devices released before 2022, switching apps may temporarily disrupt ongoing RCS conversations. However, chats should resume once both users move to Google Messages. The company also highlights some of the benefits of the switch, including improved security, RCS support, AI features, and better multi-device connectivity.
[1] https://www.samsung.com/us/apps/samsung-messages/
[2] https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-messages-app-getting-discontinued/
Never assume anything proprietary will last. (Score:4, Insightful)
Never assume anything proprietary will last.
And never assume anything Google will last.
Re: (Score:3)
> And never assume anything Google will last.
Heh, except gmail, right? RIGHT?!
Re: (Score:2)
Well, technically it works -- but it's so far from email standards that I wouldn't be surprised if they drop compatibility with regular email at some point.
Messages app? (Score:2)
I didn't even know Samsung had a Messages app. It must have come after my last Samung tablet purchase, a Tab 3 back around 2013 or so.
Re: Messages app? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a part of their forced app suite preinstalled on their phone that you can never fully switch off.
Best you can do, and what most people do, is create a separate folder in the launcher, shove all the apps there and ignore them as they all deserve to be, bloody useless bloatware.
Re: (Score:2)
That was the only Samsung app I routinely used, not least because I did not want to give Google my meta-data, but then I decided they had it anyway and it was getting to be time to get a new phone - and I wanted the freedom to move away from Samsung if I found anything better. I did not find anything better, and my replacement is good for OS updates for several years.
Rather amusingly, a few years ago they announced that their browser was one of the most popular ones worldwide based on the number of times i
How to disable bloatware (Score:2)
Settings > Apps > All Apps > (the one you don't want) > Disable
It won't free space, but It removes the icons, it won't run in the background, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
> It's a part of their forced app suite preinstalled on their phone that you can never fully switch off.
I've had good results with [1]Universal Android Debloater [github.com] so far. It's a bit extreme but... again, results.
=Smidge=
[1] https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater
Everyone has their own message app (Score:5, Interesting)
Everyone has their own message app, and outside US, almost no one uses it for anything other than SMS. For everything else, it's Whatsapp, Telegram, WeChat, Signal, etc.
It's interesting that google and other phone manufacturers lost this fight so comprehensively.
Never used it (Score:2)
Even though I've pretty consistently used Samsung phones for like 15 years now, I always switched the default messaging app to Google's. Phone companies don't need to reinvent the wheel.
Re: (Score:1)
I honestly liked the Samsung UI better. But I switched a year ago anyway when I decided to bridge SMS with my matrix instance and for that you need google messages.
No one gives a fuck (Score:1)
Samsung sucks shit.
AI features? (Score:3)
> The company also highlights some of the benefits of the switch, including improved security, RCS support, AI features, and better multi-device connectivity.
Wait, AI features are a benefit? Haha, no.
Re: AI features? (Score:2)
Yeah, great benefits. When you send an image with RCS, instead of a boring gallery picker you get a blurry preview and a silly banana icon offering to "remix" it for you.
Also, Google's implementation of RCS is shit, it breaks randomly and just starts blackholing messages because your phone fails some element of the 215-point Authentication process and gets disconnected from the servers, which keep telling all your correspondents that you're connected and available and by all means don't fallback to SMS. P
Just what we needed (Score:1)
Is handing all off our messaging metadata to Google. Wonder how much they paid off Samsung to get it
Samsung apps are all like this (Score:3)
I had to set up a Samsung A56 recently, and 90% of the setup was removing shit Samsung put on there that NOBODY asked for or wants - Samsung browser, their app store, their fitness tracker, their payment system, their assistant Bixby, malware called "AppCloud", a bunch of placeholders for Microsoft Office, Onedrive, Facebook, X, LinkedIn etc. Just absolute garbage that has to be removed to make the phone usable and fit for purpose. Some apps can't be uninstalled, only disabled. Some of the Samsung backend services can't even be disabled either despite serving no purpose.
The worst app is "AppCloud" which is a trojan/malware that automatically installs "curated" software on devices without consent. It slips into the setup sequence asking for consent when people are already habituated to clicking through screens to make their phone work. Did I mention it was made by an Israeli company called ironSource? It's one of those bits of software that cannot be removed so it's always there and I believe many people do not know how to turn it off. God knows what data it is harvesting, or the risk especially for people using Samsung devices in countries that are not friendly to Israel.
And nothing of value was lost... (Score:3)
> Samsung says users can switch to Google Messages as their default app to maintain a consistent Android messaging experience
Nor was anything gained.
Re: (Score:1)
Except, of course, for ceding control of the RCS standard to Google. Try using a third party client with Google's implementation.
Re: (Score:3)
If a third party client existed then it would work just fine. RCS is an open and clearly defined standard, and even iMessages supports it. Samsung users had no problem receiving or sending RCS, Apple users had no problem receiving RCS, and Google has no "control" over RCS as that standard is managed by the GSMA and it's 750 members much like nearly every other aspect of your phone.
Re: (Score:3)
Used the Samsung App up until around two years ago, then switched to the Google one (my old Samsung was going out of OS support and I was not sure its replacement was going to be the same make). Switching was trivially easy, and my messaging history was then available under both apps.
I don't use messaging much anyway and as far as I could discern, Google Messages was marginally better than the Samsung version.
My newer phone is another Samsung (a year old now) but does not appear to have that messaging app