Samsung appears ready to phase out another native software feature from its One UI interface. Users in select regions have received notices indicating that the company's proprietary news aggregator platform is heading toward permanent discontinuation later this year. While the official shutdown notices have currently appeared only for customers in South Korea and India, industry reports suggest the retirement will likely expand to additional global markets. The upcoming service termination affects not only the standalone application but also associated home screen widgets and the integrated media page interface in these regions, with everything scheduled to stop working on December 21, 2026. Engadget reached out to Samsung to ask whether American Galaxy users should expect the same change, but the publication has not heard back as of this writing.
The platform slated for removal has a lengthy and complicated history of iterations within the Samsung ecosystem. It originally launched back in 2017 under the name Bixby Home before transitioning to Samsung Daily in 2019. The tech giant subsequently rebranded the hub to Samsung Free just one year later, before finally settling on the current Samsung News branding in 2023. Despite these repeated overhauls and a recent push to introduce short-form video content from major media publishers like ABC News and USA Today, the service struggled to gain widespread traction or popularity among everyday Galaxy device owners.
Key takeaways
- Samsung has issued notices in South Korea and India regarding the upcoming discontinuation of its news service.
- The aggregator app, home screen widgets, and media page are scheduled to stop working on December 21, 2026.
- The platform originally debuted as Bixby Home in 2017 before going through successive rebrands as Samsung Daily and Samsung Free.
- Modern versions of One UI already support Google Discover by default, reducing the need for an in-house alternative.
Shifting toward Google integration across One UI
The move away from proprietary software mirrors previous strategic shifts executed by the Korean manufacturer. Samsung previously integrated Google Messages as the default texting app instead of its own software, and eventually discontinued Samsung Messages in the US. With modern iterations of One UI shipping with Google Discover enabled by default out of the box, the company likely no longer sees a reason to put much effort into maintaining its own news aggregator. The broader news aggregator market is also facing tough times, with artificial intelligence services like Google Discover rapidly changing how people consume news on mobile devices.
How users can transition away from the platform
Affected device owners looking to transition away from the native platform ahead of the scheduled December 21, 2026 deadline can easily swap the home screen feed. By long-pressing an empty space on the home screen, users can swipe over and select Google Discover as the default feed provider instead of Samsung News. Alternatively, users can disable the media page entirely by accessing the settings icon at the top of that same home screen panel and turning off the Media Page toggle, resulting in a cleaner interface with less software bloat.
Samsung notes that user preferences from its News platform will not carry over to other news aggregators, not even Google Discover. Individuals who have been using Samsung News to follow specific publications will have to follow each one again in whichever news app they choose going forward. Users will also want to manually remove the widgets from their home screen to ensure they are cleaned up before the service ceases functioning entirely.
Comments