Samsung is preparing to discontinue its Samsung News service on December 21, 2026, at 00:00 UTC, according to notices shown inside the app. The shutdown will stop article delivery and leave the Samsung News home-screen widget without new content.
The important limitation is regional. The notice has been documented in India and South Korea, and a Samsung moderator has confirmed the same December 21 cutoff to users in Samsung’s European community. Samsung has not published a global shutdown announcement, and its US Samsung News product page remains available. Galaxy owners should therefore check the notice inside their own app instead of assuming every country follows exactly the same schedule.
What Samsung has confirmed
The in-app message says Samsung News will be discontinued at midnight UTC on December 21. After that point, its widget will no longer receive content updates, and Samsung recommends removing the widget from the Home screen.
Samsung also says personal information collected in connection with the service will be deleted without undue delay after termination. That includes account profiles and personalization data, according to the notice. Information that must be kept under local law may be retained for the required period and deleted afterward.
There is no announced migration tool for followed topics, preferred publishers or other personalized settings. Anyone who wants to rebuild a similar feed elsewhere should make a simple list or take screenshots of important preferences before the service stops updating.
What Galaxy users are losing
Samsung News is more than a standalone app. On supported Galaxy phones and tablets it can occupy the media page to the left of the main Home screen, and it also offers a separate widget. Samsung’s current US product page promotes personalized stories from more than 250 publishing partners, twice-daily briefings, sports coverage, market information and short videos.
The service arrived in 2023 as the successor to Samsung Free. Samsung Free had previously replaced Samsung Daily, which followed Bixby Home. That history matters because Galaxy owners have seen several versions of Samsung’s left-hand content panel, but this time Samsung has not identified a direct successor.
The disappearance of the widget may be the most visible change. A widget that remains on the Home screen after December 21 could look functional while no longer refreshing. Removing it avoids an empty or stale panel.
No direct Samsung replacement has been announced
Samsung’s shutdown notice does not name a replacement news service. Google Discover is the obvious alternative because it is already built into the Home-screen media-page controls on many Galaxy models, but availability still depends on country, carrier and device.
Google Discover is not a one-for-one replacement. It recommends web stories based partly on Google activity and interests, while Samsung News offered its own editorial mix, daily briefings and app-specific following controls. Users who relied on Samsung’s sports or market sections may prefer a dedicated news, sports or finance app instead of a single algorithmic feed.
How to switch to Google Discover
Samsung’s official support instructions describe the following process on compatible Galaxy devices:
- Touch and hold an empty area of the Home screen to open editing mode.
- Swipe to the far-left media page.
- Select Google Discover instead of Samsung News.
If neither feed is wanted, the switch at the top of that media page can disable the panel entirely. Menu names and layout can vary with the phone model and One UI version, so older devices may not offer the same choices.
Switching feeds does not copy Samsung News preferences into Google Discover. Users will need to follow topics, hide unwanted sources and tune recommendations again through the Google app or Discover controls.
What to do before December 21
- Open Samsung News and read the notice. It is the clearest evidence for whether the shutdown applies to your region.
- Record followed topics and sources. Samsung has not announced an export or automatic transfer feature.
- Remove or replace the widget. Samsung says it will stop receiving content after the service ends.
- Choose a replacement. Google Discover is integrated into many Galaxy launchers, while Google News, Flipboard and publisher apps offer more deliberate source selection.
- Review notifications. If Samsung News delivered alerts, enable only the equivalent categories you want in the replacement app to avoid a flood of duplicate breaking-news notifications.
What remains unknown
Samsung has not explained why it is ending the service, which regions will be included beyond the confirmed notices, or whether a future One UI update will remove the app and media-page option automatically. Reports that every Galaxy device worldwide will lose Samsung News on the same date go beyond the evidence currently available.
The continued US marketing page adds to that uncertainty. It may simply remain online during the wind-down, or the US service could follow a different timetable. Until Samsung posts a broader announcement, the responsible approach is to distinguish the confirmed service notice from assumptions about global availability.
The practical takeaway
For affected Galaxy owners, the immediate impact is straightforward: Samsung News content and widget updates stop on December 21, personalized service data is scheduled for deletion, and there is no automatic transfer to another feed. The change does not prevent the phone from showing news; it removes Samsung’s own delivery layer.
Checking the in-app notice now gives users time to save their preferred sources and switch the Home-screen panel before it becomes stale. Google Discover is the quickest built-in alternative, but people who want a carefully chosen publisher list may be happier with a dedicated news reader.
Sources
- Samsung Community moderator confirmation and Google Discover instructions
- Samsung: current Samsung News product page and feature overview
- Samsung Support: switching between Samsung News and Google Discover
- Android Central: regional shutdown reporting, October 31, 2026
- SamMobile: in-app notice and data-deletion details
Featured image credit: Samsung Electronics.