If you haven’t heard yet, Samsung has officially confirmed that it’s shutting down its Samsung Messages app later this year. The company has already stopped pre-installing it on newer Galaxy devices, including the Galaxy S26 series, and now says it will be fully discontinued in July 2026.
Samsung notes that you’ll still be able to send messages using the app until then, except for emergency services or contacts. After it’s discontinued, the app will no longer be available for download from the Galaxy Store.
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The most natural successor to Samsung Messages, especially if you want to keep using RCS, is Google Messages. It’s the official alternative Samsung is recommending, and it’s currently the only widely available messaging app on Android that fully supports RCS.
Google Messages is already the default messaging app on most Android phones, and Google has been adding new features consistently over the past year to make it more capable and unified across devices. And with RCS support on Google Messages, you get features like reliable cross-texting with iPhones, typing indicators, high-quality media sharing, message reactions, as well as built-in spam protection.
Of course, it’s not a perfect replacement for Samsung Messages. You’ll miss things like deeper chat customization (although Google seems to be working on integrating this), better message categorization, and a more flexible UI.
And if you prefer a simpler experience, Google Messages’ Gemini integrations might not be for everyone. But if RCS matters to you, this is pretty much your only option right now.
If you’re open to moving away from RCS altogether, the messaging app almost everyone uses is WhatsApp. It’s widely adopted globally, works across platforms, and offers more features than both Samsung Messages and Google Messages. You get built-in voice and video calls, group chats, communities, message reactions, and all the features you usually find in SMS-based texting apps.
That said, it’s not perfect. While WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption by default, there have been recent concerns around privacy, with reports suggesting Meta employees could bypass E2EE to read private messages without a decryption step, although the company has denied these claims.
Still, if your priority is reaching the most people with the least effort, this is the easiest switch you can make.
If WhatsApp isn’t for you, another alternative that might interest you, even if it sounds a bit odd at first, is Instagram DMs. A lot of people already use Instagram as their primary messaging platform (including myself). One of the biggest advantages is that you don’t need a phone number, since everything works through usernames.
Instagram DMs are already a great place for casual conversations, quick replies, and sharing memes or posts. You also get cross-platform messaging in some regions with Facebook Messenger integration, along with features like chat themes, vanish mode, and reactions.
Of course, it’s not designed to replace SMS or a dedicated messaging app. But depending on your usage, you might realize you’re already relying on it more than you think. That said, if privacy is a priority, Instagram might not be ideal, especially with the company moving away from end-to-end encryption for DMs starting May 8, 2026.
If you’re a power user and want a feature-rich and flexible experience, Telegram is probably the best alternative. Compared to most messaging apps, it’s easily one of the most feature-packed options out there.
You get things like massive group chats (up to 200,000 members), channels, bots for automation, and support for sharing large files (up to 4GB). One of the biggest advantages is its cloud-based sync, which makes switching devices effortless, unlike SMS or even WhatsApp, wherein you have to manually move your data.
That said, there’s a trade-off. Regular chats aren’t end-to-end encrypted by default, and you’ll need to use Secret Chats for that. For some users, that could be a deal breaker.
If your main concern is privacy, Signal is the app you should be looking at. It offers end-to-end encryption by default across everything, including messages, calls, and media, and it collects minimal user data compared to most other messaging platforms.
The downside is that it’s not as widely used, and the feature set is more minimal compared to apps like WhatsApp or Telegram. But if you’re okay convincing a few close contacts to switch, Signal is probably the most secure option on this list.
All that said, there isn’t a true one-to-one replacement for Samsung Messages. There are some customizable SMS apps like Textra and QUIK SMS (open-source), but they don’t support RCS. So if RCS matters to you, you’ll have to switch to Google Messages. Otherwise, your options are more or less the ones listed above.
