Samsung confirmed on April 4 that Samsung Messages will shut down in July, with remaining users automatically moved to Google Messages. If you’ve been loyal to Samsung Messages for years, that stings. But this is one of those changes that’s hard to argue against once you understand what you’ve been missing.
The core reason comes down to RCS — Rich Communication Services. Google Messages runs on RCS by default, which brings read receipts, typing indicators, high-quality media sharing, and real group chat functionality. Samsung Messages technically supported RCS at one point, but it was tied to carrier-specific standards that were inconsistent, patchy, and never fully reliable.
Google took a different approach in 2019. Instead of depending on carriers, it built RCS directly into Google Messages, available to any Android user regardless of their network. That decision changed everything.
The dominoes fell quickly after. OnePlus made Google Messages its default in 2020. Samsung followed in 2022 with the Galaxy S22 series. By 2023, RCS was switched on automatically for all Google Messages users, no manual setup required.
Today, Google Messages is the de facto texting standard on Android. If you want RCS to actually work, this is where it lives.
Anyone who has used RCS consistently knows it’s a genuine step up. Once you’re used to seeing when a message lands, watching someone type in real time, and sending photos that don’t arrive looking like 2007 MMS attachments, the old SMS experience feels broken by comparison.
Samsung Messages served its purpose for a long time. But July can’t come soon enough.
