The EU Forces Google to Open Android's AI Features to Competitors

A new Digital Markets Act order requires Google to let rival AI assistants reach Android users, share search data with third-party engines, and lift restrictions — a rare win for European tech competition policy.

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Two weeks ago, the European Commission issued two legally binding decisions under its Digital Markets Act that together form one of the most aggressive pieces of AI-era tech regulation to date. Rather than fining Google — which it already did, with a €4.1 billion Android antitrust ruling that was upheld by Europe’s top court on July 2 and is now final — the Commission chose something arguably more disruptive: ordering the company to open its products to rivals Reuters reported the details on July 16, and Ars Technica’s coverage confirmed the scope of what Google must now do.

The first order requires Google to share anonymized search data with third-party search engines from January 2027. This is not a permissive sharing arrangement that Google controls unilaterally — it will be transparent and subject to reasonable terms set with oversight by the Commission, according to the official EC document. The second order mandates that Google open 11 Android features to rival AI assistants — things like voice-triggered activation, notification access, and contextual awareness — so products like ChatGPT or Claude running on an Android phone in Europe can reach users with the same depth of integration that Gemini currently enjoys by default. Users will start benefiting from these changes when the next iteration of Android ships in July 2027 per The Verge’s reporting.

Google was not pleased. Android president Sameer Samat publicly criticized the orders, telling Reuters that the Commission is “on the wrong track” and arguing that the forced data sharing could compromise user privacy and security. CNBC covered Google’s pushback extensively, including quotes from company officials claiming that the changes could endanger users rather than protect them. The company maintains that Android users already have significant choice — pointing to Google Play and the ability to install competing apps — and that these measures are a solution in search of a problem.

But the Commission’s reasoning was straightforward: Google has repeatedly failed to self-comply with its DMA obligations, and every time the Commission has given it a window for voluntary action — starting with guidance in January 2026 and opening a comment period months later — the company’s proposals were judged insufficient. The 11 features Google is required to open are not trivial: they include core interaction points that determine whether a rival AI assistant can function at all or has been reduced to an afterthought. Without deep platform access, even an AI as capable as ChatGPT would be unable to respond to notifications, invoke itself by voice from the home screen, or understand enough about what the user is doing on their phone to offer genuinely useful suggestions.

The broader stakes are clear. Android’s combined dominant position across device manufacturing and search has given Google a data advantage that rivals simply cannot match, even if they build better AI models. CNET covered the competitive implications when it reported on the orders: the real question is whether forcing interoperability at this depth actually levels the playing field for AI companies that might not have been built by a company with billions of active device users already in its pocket. Euronews noted that Apple — which benefits similarly from its walled-garden model — also objected to the ruling, a rare moment where two tech giants found themselves on the same side of a regulatory fight.

Whether this succeeds in creating real competition is an open question. Interoperability requirements have worked in some sectors (mobile termination rates forcing telecoms to interconnect calls, for instance) and failed spectacularly in others (Microsoft’s 2004 EU ruling that forced Windows Media Player to expose its multimedia APIs — widely seen as having done little to displace RealNetworks’ competitors). Google is sure to argue the latter comparison. The Commission’s expectation, for what it’s worth, is closer to the former: if rival AI assistants can reach Android users at all like Gemini does, developers will have an incentive to build them, and the market might actually work.

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