App Sunset Readiness Kit
A general readiness checklist for any app shutdown announcement: inventory, export, replace - built on the Samsung News and Samsung Free cases.
For anyone who depends on a favorite app: a reusable exit plan for shutdown announcements - read the notice like an auditor, inventory your stake, export before the cutoff, and line up a tested replacement.
Install it in 3 steps
No sign-up. No CLI tools. Pick your AI, copy one line, paste it over.
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What's inside
One SKILL.md (the playbook) + one starter template. A preview:
App Sunset Readiness Kit
The idea in one paragraph
Every app you depend on will end someday - sometimes with a year's warning, sometimes with an in-app notice nobody expected. This skill is a general readiness kit for any shutdown announcement: inventory what you keep in the app, export it before the cutoff, and line up a replacement, practiced on real cases like Samsung News and Samsung Free.
What it is built on
- Samsung News will shut down on 2026-12-21 at 00:00 UTC; the app, its widget, and the leftmost home-screen media panel all stop, and Samsung will delete the app's data, profiles, and personalization settings afterward.
- Samsung News is the fourth name in a preloaded Galaxy feed lineage - Bixby Home (2017), Samsung Daily (2019), Samsung Free (2020), Samsung News (2023) - and Samsung Free itself was discontinued on 2025-12-16.
- Samsung gave no reason for the Samsung News shutdown and announced no successor, showing that even built-in, default apps can disappear without explanation.
Workflow
- Read the notice like an auditor (input: the shutdown announcement -> output: a facts table). Extract the cutoff date and time, what exactly stops working, what happens to your data, and which regions are confirmed. Note what is not said - reasons, successors, and unconfirmed regions.
- Inventory your stake (input: your usage of the app -> output: a stake list). List everything you would lose: saved content, settings, history, subscriptions, and workflows that start in the app.
- Export before the cutoff (input: the stake list -> output: verified exports). Export each item in a durable, app-independent format. Verify you can open the exports outside the app. Assume anything left inside after the cutoff is gone.
- Line up the replacement (input: your core use cases -> output: a replacement shortlist). For each use case, name one primary replacement and test it before the cutoff. Prefer options that let you export your data, so the next shutdown hurts less.
- Schedule the exit (input: the cutoff date -> output: a countdown plan). Work backward from the cutoff: exports done two weeks before, replacement tested one week before, app removed on your own terms before the deadline.
What good looks like
A one-page exit plan per app: the cutoff, your exports (verified and stored outside the app), a tested replacement, and a calendar reminder that fired before the deadline. The shutdown is an inconvenience, not a loss.
Template preview
App Sunset Readiness Kit - Worksheet
Reuse one sheet per app.
1. Notice audit
- App: ______________________ Cutoff: ____ / ____ / ____ at ____ : ____ UTC
- What stops working: ________________________________________
- What happens to my data: ________________________________________
- Regions confirmed: ______________________ Not confirmed: ______________________
- Reason given? [ ] yes: __________ [ ] no
- Successor announced? [ ] yes: __________ [ ] no
2. My stake
3. Replacement shortlist
4. Countdown plan
- Exports done by: ____ / ____ / ____
- Replacement tested by: ____ / ____ / ____
- App removed by: ____ / ____ / ____
