Samsung smartphones are some of the most popular across the globe and here in the UK thanks to their wide availability and range of prices, from the high-end Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra down to the Galaxy M and A ranges of phones you can pick up for a couple of hundred pounds. Until now, they all came installed with the Samsung Messages app as the default text messaging app. If you have a Samsung phone, you may well use it every day.

That’s why it’s a surprise that Samsung has confirmed its plans to kill off Samsung Messages, the app that for years has come pre-installed in all Samsung Galaxy smartphones and is the default text messaging app for scores of Samsung phone owners.

But the new Samsung Galaxy S25, S25 Plus and S25 Ultra do not come with Samsung Messages pre-installed, instead only offering Google Messages as the texting app out of the box.

A Samsung spokesperson provided the following comment to tech site Android Authority:

“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 Play Store; however, those who chose to utilise 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.”

This means if you use Samsung Messages, it will continue to work. It may also be possible to set up the new S25 and get Samsung Messages to carry over from your old Samsung phone using the firm’s Smart Switch software.

But with the Samsung Messages app not available for download to new users from the Play Store, and Samsung’s confirmation it is killing off the app, current users might want to switch to Google Messages as Samsung Messages will no longer receive software updates.

For what it's worth Express.co.uk could see the app still available on our Galaxy S25 review sample from the Samsung Galaxy Store app at the time of writing.

Android Authority noted that Samsung first pre-installed Google Messages on the Galaxy S21 series back in 2021. Since then, Galaxy phones have had both Google Messages and Samsung messages installed out of the box, which could be confusing for consumers. Both are text messaging apps that perform broadly the same functions.

But recently, Google Messages was updated to support rich communications services, otherwise known as RCS. This allows users of the app to send texts to iPhones that can handle high-resolution images, message reactions, and other smart functions previously not possible.

Without RCS, images sent between Android and iPhone devices can often be very low quality as they are being sent using the older texting standards. RCS makes using Google Messages feel more like modern messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.

Samsung had said back in July 2024 it would make Google Messages the default texting app on its newly released phones, but until the S25 came out the company continued to offer Samsung Messages. That is no longer the case.

It is not clear if Samsung intends to push existing Galaxy phone owners to download and use Google Messages instead, but the change could prove jarring if you are used to Samsung Messages and how it works.

When you next get a new phone, it is easy enough to import all of your text message chat history into Google Messages from your old Samsung phone, but it’s a surprise to see Samsung abandon its own texting app, especially when the S25 - and all Samsung phones - still duplicate a few other apps, including having both the Samsung Gallery photo app and Google Photos preinstalled.