Samsung News will stop working worldwide on 21 December 2026, ending the built-in news service that many Galaxy phone and tablet owners use for headlines, sports scores and stock updates. Samsung has told users of the shutdown through notices inside the app, with the service scheduled to close at 00:00 UTC on 21 December.

The first shutdown notices appeared in India and South Korea. On 3 November, ChosunBiz reported that the closure applies worldwide, citing Samsung Electronics. Galaxy owners who rely on the service now have a firm deadline to preserve anything they want to keep.

What stops working on 21 December

The shutdown covers the Samsung News app itself, its home-screen widget and the dedicated media feed reached by swiping to the leftmost home-screen panel. After the cutoff, none of these will receive fresh content. Samsung recommends removing the widget from the home screen once the service ends.

Samsung has not published a model-by-model list of affected devices. The closure concerns the Samsung News service wherever it is available, rather than a particular Galaxy phone generation or One UI release. Losing Samsung News does not mean a phone or tablet has reached the end of its software support: Android updates, security patches and other installed apps continue independently.

Your Samsung News data will be deleted

Samsung's discontinuation notice says personal information associated with Samsung News will be deleted without undue delay after the service ends. That includes user profiles and personalisation data collected through the app. Some information may be kept temporarily where local laws require it, and deleted once the retention period passes.

The deletion applies only to information connected with Samsung News. It does not affect a broader Samsung account, a Google account, or photos, contacts, messages and other content stored on a Galaxy device.

There is an important catch: Samsung has not announced an official export or migration tool for Samsung News preferences. Once the service closes, users should not assume they can reopen the app to recover followed sources or settings.

What Galaxy owners should save before the cutoff

Anyone who has customised Samsung News should record those settings manually before 21 December. Screenshots of followed publications and topics are the simplest record, and article links worth keeping should be saved to a browser bookmarks folder or a reading-list service, rather than left inside the app.

Sports teams, followed companies and market interests, podcast subscriptions and local-news preferences should be noted separately, so they can be rebuilt in another app. Samsung's own support guide describes managing topics through the News tab, the three-dot menu, Settings and Manage news topics, though menu names can differ by app version and region.

No replacement has been announced

Samsung has not announced a direct replacement or a process that automatically transfers Samsung News preferences to another platform. Google Discover is the most obvious alternative: it is already supported on many Galaxy phones and tablets, and owners can switch the leftmost home-screen panel from Samsung News to Google Discover. But Discover does not import a Samsung News profile, so followed publications and preferences will need to be set up again.

Google News offers more direct controls for following publications and topics, while RSS readers can help users build a feed around specific websites. Neither should be treated as an automatic migration destination.

A short life for Samsung's news service

Samsung News launched in the United States in April 2023 as an update to Samsung Free. It gathered news from participating publishers, with personalised feeds, morning and evening briefings and podcasts. It followed earlier Samsung home-screen experiences including Samsung Daily and Bixby Home.

The decision follows a relatively recent expansion. In May 2026, Samsung introduced additional publisher content and short-form news videos for Galaxy users in the United States and Canada. Less than seven months later, the service is scheduled to close. According to the ChosunBiz report of 3 November, a Samsung Electronics representative attributed the shutdown to changes in how people consume news. The company has not said that Galaxy AI or Gemini will replace Samsung News.

For Galaxy owners, the practical task is simple: check whether the discontinuation notice has appeared in the app, screenshot the settings worth keeping, save important article links, and try an alternative feed while Samsung News is still running.