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Don't wait for visible corrosion or discolored water - by then you're looking at a much messier, more expensive job. The thing is, galvanized pipes fail from the inside first, so you won't always see warning signs until the problem's already significant. A better move is to have a plumber camera-scope a section of your line or do a water test to check for elevated zinc levels; that tells you the coating's degrading before it becomes an emergency. If your home has hard water or the pipes are over 50 years old, replacement sooner rather than later saves you from dealing with low water pressure, rust stains on fixtures, or burst pipes down the road.
If your galvanized pipes are still holding water without leaks and the water quality looks fine, you can probably wait a bit longer, but replacement becomes pretty important once you start seeing discoloration, reduced water pressure, or rust stains. The thing is, once galvanizing starts breaking down, corrosion spreads faster and can eventually contaminate your water or cause pinhole leaks that are a pain to track down. Getting ahead of it before major problems show up saves you from emergency repairs later - copper or pex replacements will outlast galvanized by decades.
The real tipping point is when you notice discolored water coming out - that's your galvanized coating failing from the inside out, and once it starts it spreads fast. Better to replace proactively than deal with a burst pipe in your wall.
Waiting until you see obvious problems is basically gambling with your home's infrastructure. The thing nobody mentions enough is that galvanized pipes have a lifespan - usually 40-50 years depending on your water chemistry and how hard your water is. If your house was built in the 70s or 80s, you're probably on borrowed time whether things look fine right now or not.
The practical move is to get a plumber out for an inspection if you're unsure about your pipe age. They can cut into a section (usually somewhere inconspicuous) and see what the inside actually looks like. That costs maybe a couple hundred bucks and saves you from either replacing pipes way too early or getting blindsided by a burst. Hard water areas especially eat through galvanized faster, so geography matters too.
Once you decide replacement is coming, start planning it sooner rather than later. The job gets exponentially messier if a pipe fails mid-way through - suddenly you're dealing with water damage, emergency calls, and emergency pricing instead of doing it on your own timeline. Copper or PEX replacements aren't dirt cheap, but they'll outlast you and won't corrode like this stuff does.
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