‘Back Up Your Messages’—Samsung Shuts Down Texting After 17 Years

InnovationCybersecurity‘Back Up Your Messages’—Samsung Shuts Down Texting After 17 YearsByZak Doffman,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Zak Doffman writes about cybersecurity, surveillance and privacy.Follow AuthorMay 18, 2026, 04:01pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.All change for Galaxy.Future Publishing via Getty ImagesThis is your six week warning. Samsung first launched its texting app in 2009. Now after 17 years, Messages starts to shut down on phones in July. It’s time to act — but with users reporting missing texts, back-up your messages beforehand.In its end of service announcement, Samsung told users to “upgrade to Google Messages as your default messaging app today to maintain a consistent messaging experience on Android." And now there’s plenty of online guidance as to the best ways to save your old messages (just in case) and transfer to Google Messages.All change for Galaxy.Future Publishing via Getty Images“Back up your messages,” ZDNet says. “Your texts don’t have to disappear when the app gets shut down.” You can save all your content to an external SSD or Samsung Cloud or Google Drive. Google Drive is easiest, but pick whichever you prefer.With that done, “transferring your conversations to Google Messages is super easy,” Android Central says, notwithstanding earlier reports that a delayed process was leaving users with lost texts and an agonising wait to see if they all reappeared.MORE FOR YOU“Once the indexing process finishes,” Android Central says, “all your conversations should properly show up inside Google Messages. So if you don’t see your messages being transferred over immediately, you should see them within 48 hours.”After backing up, ZDNet recommends users “start testing Google Messages, or alternative communication platforms, to see which one you’d prefer before Samsung ultimately pulls the plug...