The 33-year-old Cardiff Blues player featured 95 times for Wales and won three Grand Slams but was left out of their Six Nations squad having missed out on the 2014 autumn series.
"It's obviously not the way I would want to finish, it's not how I planned it in my head, and I hope no-one thinks I am simply quitting," said Jones.
His last appearance for Wales was in the 38-16 defeat by South Africa in the first test of their June 2014 tour when he was substituted after half-an-hour.
"It started when I got dropped for the last game of the 2014 Six Nations (against Scotland)," Jones told the newspaper.
"I was still pretty happy with the way everything was going and I was thinking I'd get back in. Then there was the '30-minute match' in South Africa."
The former Neath and Ospreys player began his international career against England at the Millennium Stadium in 2003 and he went on to tour with the Lions in 2009 and 2013, making five test appearances which took his international tally to 100.
Jones said he made up his mind before Christmas that if he was not chosen in the Six Nations squad he would retire.
He will continue playing for Blues, the club he joined on a one-year deal in August 2014 after his Ospreys contract expired.
(Writing by Ken Ferris, editing by Tony Jimenez)
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