Samsung is killing your texting app so Google can read the room

April 2026 is when Samsung plans to yeet its own texting app and tell Galaxy users to go use Google Messages instead. Two years from now your phone’s default vibe is basically “Congrats, you’ve been acquired by the group chat.”

Samsung’s native SMS app is reportedly getting sunset, and Galaxy owners are being nudged (shoved) into Google’s messaging stack. The pitch will be some nice corporate bedtime story like “a better, more secure, more modern messaging experience.”

This isn’t just an icon swap. Defaults are power. Whoever controls the default messaging app controls the onboarding, the prompts, the backups, the “hey enable this feature” pop-ups, and the subtle little settings that magically move from “off” to “why is this on.”

And sure, Google Messages brings RCS, end-to-end encryption for certain chats, and the general promise of not texting like it’s 2009. Cool. Also cool: one fewer option, more dependency on Google services, and another chunk of your daily life routed through the company that can’t walk past a data point without trying to monetize it.

Meanwhile Samsung gets to save money, Google gets to tighten the loop, and you get another Terms of Service update that reads like a hostage note written by attorneys.