Samsung News App Discontinued in 2026: Galaxy Shutdown Date, What Ends, and What to Use Instead

Samsung is shutting down Samsung News, the built-in news app on Galaxy phones and tablets, on December 21, 2026. The company posted a discontinuation notice inside the app in India and South Korea, and according to SamMobile the service will stop working at 00:00 UTC on that date. If you read your daily headlines through Samsung’s own feed, that feed now has a fixed end date.

Samsung News running on a Galaxy phone — Image: SamMobile

The shutdown covers more than just the app icon. According to SamMobile, the Samsung News app, its widget, and the dedicated media page on the leftmost panel of the Galaxy home screen will all cease to exist. The notice itself, quoted by PhoneArena, reads: “Thank you for using Samsung News. We would like to inform you that Samsung News will be discontinued as of December 21, 2026, 00:00 (UTC). Following the discontinuation of the service, the Samsung News widget will no longer receive content updates. We kindly recommend removing the widget from your Home screen.”

Samsung News discontinuation notice shown in India and South Korea — Samsung’s discontinuation notice, as reported by SamMobile

What exactly ends on December 21

Samsung News is the feed that delivers news stories, sports scores, and stock updates on Galaxy devices, both through its standalone app and through the panel you reach by swiping right from the home screen. After December 21, 2026, that content stops updating. The widget will no longer receive fresh stories, and Samsung itself recommends removing it from your home screen once the service goes dark.

There is one important limit to what is confirmed so far. The discontinuation notice has only been reported inside the app in India and South Korea, and Samsung has not published a country list or confirmed the shutdown for other markets. SamMobile and other outlets consider a wider rollout highly likely, but until Samsung confirms it through official channels in each market, owners outside India and South Korea should treat the date as expected rather than guaranteed for their region. The safest check is to open Samsung News on your own phone and look for the banner: if it is there, your device is covered by the notice.

Your data will be deleted

The shutdown also has a privacy consequence worth acting on before December. According to SamMobile, Samsung will delete all user data, profiles, and personalization information tied to Samsung News after the service ends. The only exception is where local regulations require the company to keep certain information for a set period, after which that data will also be permanently erased.

That means followed topics, preferred sources, and personalization settings inside Samsung News will not survive the cutoff. No export tool for followed topics or saved preferences has appeared in the notice or in current reporting, so anything you want to keep from the service should be saved before December 21. Your broader Samsung account, your Google account, and other content stored on the device are not part of this deletion, which covers Samsung News data specifically.

A short history of Samsung’s revolving news feed

Samsung News is only the latest name for a feed Samsung has relaunched again and again in the same home screen slot. According to SamMobile, the timeline runs like this: Bixby Home launched in April 2017, Samsung Daily replaced it in October 2019, Samsung Free took over in late 2020 alongside One UI 3.0, and Samsung News itself launched on April 18, 2023, as the replacement for Samsung Free.

Samsung has not given a reason for ending Samsung News, and the notice offers no explanation. SamMobile notes that the move looks like part of a wider streamlining of Samsung’s software, cutting services that duplicate what Google already offers. In the same vein, Samsung recently announced the shutdown of its Daily+ service on TVs and smart monitors. For Galaxy owners, the practical replacement is already on the phone: Google Discover is an existing option for the leftmost home screen panel, and Android Authority expects the panel to fall back to Discover once Samsung News goes dark. Google News is the other obvious alternative for a personalized feed.

What Galaxy owners should do now

First, open Samsung News and check for the discontinuation banner, since that is currently the only reliable way to know whether your device is covered. Second, save anything you want to keep from the app before December 21, because there is no confirmed way to carry preferences over to a replacement. Third, switch the leftmost home screen panel to Google Discover now if you rely on that swipe for headlines, rather than finding it blank in December. Finally, once the shutdown date passes, remove the Samsung News widget from your home screen, exactly as Samsung recommends.

Samsung’s own support pages still describe Samsung News as the destination for trending and breaking stories on Galaxy devices, which shows how abrupt this cutoff will feel for people who use it daily. The service lasted a little over three and a half years, longer than any of its predecessors in that home screen slot, but on December 21, 2026, the feed goes dark. Galaxy owners who switch now will not miss a headline.

Sources: SamMobile, PhoneArena, Android Headlines.

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Axee Davies

Axee Davies is the founder of AxeeTech, publishing gaming guides, codes, and Windows how-tos since March 2013. A tech enthusiast for 13+ years — starting with smartphones and Android rooting — he now runs a site that puts out a new guide every day for Roblox players, traders, and Windows users. More about AxeeTech

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