There’s a new tension at the heart of Android. Whisper it quietly, but everything might change, Reports suggesting Samsung could replace Google’s AI should come as no surprise. Samsung phones outsell Google’s tenfold, yet Google controls the OS on which all those phones run. Delayed updates and waiting in line for new features can’t sit well.
All of that means your Samsung account might become much more important than it is now. But just as with your Google account, Samsung has introduced a new policy to delete accounts that have not been used for a while. That “inactive” timeline is set at 24 months, and those deletions begin on July 31, which is just 8 weeks from now.
“If you’ve used multiple Samsung accounts on different devices and haven’t signed into one of them for a while, you may want to do so,” SamMobile says. “Samsung says that this is being done in the interest of ensuring that the data of users who haven’t used their accounts for two years remain protected.”
If you’re affected, Samsung should have let you know by email — albeit the email associated with the inactive account can’t be inactive as well, or that notification won’t reach you. “When an account is deleted,” SamMobile says, “access will be restricted and all of the data linked to that account will be deleted.”
If you do have multiple accounts or a main account that is dormant as you move between phones, the fix is simple. Just “log into it or use a Samsung service or product while logged into the account so that it’s no longer considered inactive.” If you don’t, “Samsung has said that accounts and data once deleted can’t be restored.”
Samsung’s direction of travel on Android might be informed by China’s leading OEMs. There’s speculation they may switch Android for a homegrown OS with Huawei, which would change the game completely. Meanwhile, speculation continues as to when Samsung might upgrade Galaxy phones to One UI 8 and Android 16, most of which have only just received One UI 7 and Android 15. It’s not hard to see the problem.