Samsung plans to shutter its ChatON messaging application early next year. The service will go dark in international markets on Feb. 1, and will wind down in the U.S. by the end of March. ChatON is an over-the-top messaging service similar to WhatsApp and others. Samsung preinstalled the free app on most phones it sold since 2011, though it began to vanish from U.S. handsets in recent months. Despite the app's wide availability it never gained much traction. Samsung said it plans to focus on "health, mobile commerce, and other platforms" moving forward.


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