Samsung is shutting down Samsung News on December 21, 2026 in India and South Korea, and the company has already sent notices to users in both markets. For Galaxy phone and tablet owners who relied on the app for news on the Home screen, the change leaves Google Discover as the built-in alternative.
That is why Samsung News is getting attention now. Mihai Matei noted that users should remember to remove the Samsung News widget from the Home screen before the cutoff, and Samsung says a News widget can be deleted by holding it and tapping Remove all. For anyone who wants to keep an aggregated news feed in place, the timing matters because the shutdown date is fixed and the switch can be made now.
Samsung News has had a long and shifting life. It began as Bixby Home in 2017, became Samsung Daily a couple of years later, turned into Samsung Free at the end of 2020, and was renamed Samsung News three years later. Along the way, it went through three design overhauls and, for nearly a decade, gave Galaxy users a choice between Samsung News and Google Discover, or no news aggregator at all.
The part Samsung has not explained is why the platform is being pulled now. There is no public reason attached to the shutdown notices, even as AI is changing the web search landscape and may be part of the broader shift. For now, the only confirmed step is practical: Galaxy users in India and South Korea have a date, a replacement, and one last task to clear the widget before December 21, 2026.
