Samsung is making a key change to the Samsung Cloud service this February, although it's a change that may not affect anyone in practice. The company has been sending out notices to some users telling them that come February, Samsung Cloud will stop backing up app data for third-party apps. App data already uploaded will be deleted on February 6, 2018 for all users, while other aspects of the service will remain unchanged.
No app data backup and restore isn't exactly a problem
Now, before you cry foul, it's worth keeping in mind that Samsung Cloud will still backup installation files for third-party apps and restore them on a new device. That's pretty much what it does right now – like Google's backup functionality baked into Android, Samsung Cloud doesn't restore user data for apps despite claiming to do so. You have to start with a clean slate every time you restore apps and app data on a new device; that's what we've noticed every time we have switched to a new Samsung phone for review, something we do at least once every six months.
Not to mention Samsung Cloud isn't offering oodles of backup space, either. For example, the 15GB of free storage falls far short of being adequate for backing up your gallery media, so perhaps space freed up by deletion of app data could work in the service's favor. Again, that's just in theory, and it's unlikely anyone will be affected by the removal of third-party app data backup support in Samsung Cloud.
As made clear in the new policy, Samsung Cloud will continue to backup everything other than app data after February 6. This includes system settings (including your home screen setup), contacts, messages, call logs, documents, notes, Samsung Internet data, voice recordings, and all third-party apps installed on a particular device. Still, it wouldn't hurt to start using other services for backing up your phone data (like Samsung's Smart Switch software on a PC), because who knows when the company will take away other functionality from Samsung Cloud?
