Summary
- Samsung’s latest Galaxy S25 series will ship with Google Messages as the sole pre-installed messaging application.
- While Samsung Messages is no longer available on the Google Play Store, Samsung indicates that existing users can continue using the app, and it remains available for download on the Galaxy Store.
- This move signifies Samsung’s increased reliance on Google services, particularly in areas where Google offers a superior product.
Samsung’s annual release of One UI on top of Android separates its devices from the wide variety of smartphones available on the market with unique customizations, more multitasking options, stock apps that are tailored to Samsung’s hardware and ecosystem, and more.
The latter, which includes apps and tools like Bixby, Health, Phone, Messages, Wallet, Notes, Reminder, Calendar, and more, are currently in a weird place. For reference, with yesterday’s Samsung Galaxy S25 release, the tech giant clearly alluded that it hasn’t forgotten about its stock app, with Gemini integrations for Reminder, Calendar, Notes, and Clock being one of the pivotal software-side announcements — but where does that leave Bixby? The tech giant seems to be prioritizing only some of its own apps, and pushing users towards Google’s offerings where it knows it has the inferior product.
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With the Galaxy S25 series, the South Korean tech giant has officially called it quits on Samsung Messages. The app, which has lingered on Samsung smartphones for years now, used to come pre-installed as a stock app. That is no longer the case with the Galaxy S25, with the new devices shipping with only Google Messages pre-installed.
The latter has been preloaded on all Samsung devices released since 2021, with it slowly gobbling up the stock app’s market share. This can largely be attributed to Google Messages offering RCS support, which is now all the more useful with Apple adopting the standard.
The writing has been on the wall for some time now
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The tech giant’s current-gen foldables ditched Samsung Messages in favor of Google Messages, and now its latest smartphones are doing the same, with Samsung going as far as saying that it is sunsetting the stock app.
With the close collaboration between Google and Samsung, we have opted to migrate all services to Google Messages and are sunsetting Samsung Messages. It’s no longer available in the PlayStore; however, those who chose to utilize Samsung Messages are still able to do so. We believe that the added functionality of RCS messaging on Google Messages creates an enhanced user experience for both Android-to-Android messaging and across platforms.
The statement above was given to Android Authority, and it explicitly mentions that the app is no longer available on the Google Play Store. While Samsung’s statement doesn’t explicitly state this, it doesn’t look like updating to One UI 7 will cause the Samsung Messages app to disappear from your device. “Those who choose to utilize Samsung Messages are still able to do so,” said the tech giant. New users, on the other hand, will still find the app available on the Galaxy Store. Whether Samsung intends to continue shipping new features for the app is highly doubtful.
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