The EU Just Forced Google to Open Android and Search to Its AI Rivals

Key points

• The European Commission issued two separate rulings on Thursday requiring Google to open Android and Google Search to competing AI assistants and search engines.
• Google has until January 2027 to begin sharing Search data and until July 2027 to implement Android changes.
• Non-compliance could cost Google fines of up to 10 percent of its annual worldwide revenue, potentially tens of billions of dollars.
• Android users in the EU could gain the ability to set ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity as their default phone assistant with the same deep access Gemini currently enjoys.

Google is about to lose its tight grip on two things it has controlled for years: what AI assistant runs at the heart of your Android phone, and who gets to see the data its search engine generates.

The European Commission, the EU's executive body that enforces competition rules, handed down two decisions on Thursday under the Digital Markets Act, a law that requires the biggest tech platforms (officially called "gatekeepers") to give competitors access to the same systems and data they use themselves. The decisions do not carry an immediate fine. Instead, they are instructions to change how Google operates.

The first ruling covers Android. Right now, Google's own assistant Gemini gets deep access to your phone: it can talk to apps, respond to "Hey Google," and use the phone's camera and microphone in ways third-party tools cannot. Under the new rules, Google must offer that same level of access to rival assistants, and must let users (not Google) decide which assistant gets it. That means an Android owner in the EU could eventually set ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude as their main assistant and have it work just as well as Gemini does today.

The second ruling covers Google Search and the valuable data it produces. Competing search engines and AI chatbots, which the EU specifically notes can work like search engines, will be able to request access to information Google has historically kept to itself. Think of it as Google being told to share its recipe, within limits.

Google has objected to both rulings, saying the requirements create privacy and security risks. The EU says safeguards will apply: search data use will be restricted, and Google can screen which apps get deeper Android access to prevent bad actors.

As first reported by The Verge AI, the rulings could also signal how Brussels plans to handle similar questions about other tech giants. Apple, for instance, chose not to release its updated Siri AI in Europe at all, citing the Digital Markets Act's interoperability rules.

What does this mean for people who own an Android phone?

Practically nothing changes today. Google has until mid-2027 to put the Android changes in place. After that, if you live in the EU, you should start seeing options to choose a different AI assistant and actually have it work properly, not feel like a second-class app bolted on the side.

For now, the rules apply only inside the EU. Users elsewhere will not see changes unless Google decides to roll them out globally, which it is not required to do.

The bigger picture: this is the clearest sign yet that the era of one company quietly deciding which AI assistant you use, by making its own work far better than anything else, is facing a real legal challenge.