The European Union has ordered Google to give rival AI assistants deeper access to Android, arguing that the company is using its dominant mobile operating system to shut out competitors. The EU’s concern is straightforward: apps like Google’s own Gemini get full access to Android’s core functions, while third-party AI assistants are stuck with limited hooks into the system. That gap, regulators say, puts competitors at a structural disadvantage before users even make a choice.
The ruling also goes further than Android. Google must share search data with third-party search engines and AI chatbots, including the same data it uses to improve its own search product. The data must be anonymized, and an independent third party will check that the anonymization methods actually hold up.
Both decisions are legally binding. Google has until January 2027 to start sharing search data with rivals, and until July 2027 to open up Android’s software features to competing AI apps.
This matters beyond just Google. It is the EU’s most direct attempt yet to apply its Digital Markets Act to the AI race. For years, regulators focused on search, browsers, and app stores. Now they are going after the layer where the next wave of tech competition is actually playing out: AI assistants embedded into operating systems. The concern is that whoever controls the OS controls which AI gets used, which is a significant lever in a market that is moving fast.
For Android users in Europe, the practical effect could look similar to the browser choice screen the EU already forced on Google. Once a user picks a default AI assistant, they should be able to wake it with a voice command and use it for a range of tasks, just as they currently can with Gemini.
Google is not taking this quietly. Kent Walker, the company’s President of Global Affairs, said the decisions “risk undermining vital privacy and security guardrails for millions of Europeans.” He argued that opening Android further will weaken device security, and that forcing Google to share search data will “endanger national security.” Apple, which has its own reasons to watch this case closely, backed Google earlier this year, warning that similar requirements on its own platform would create a privacy nightmare.
Whether Google will formally challenge the rulings is not yet confirmed, but given the strength of its public response, a legal fight seems likely. The company has form here: it has contested EU competition decisions before, often dragging cases out for years. The 2027 deadlines give it some room, but the clock is running.
What regulators are trying to solve is a real tension. If Google can quietly favor Gemini across a billion Android devices, smaller AI companies face an uphill battle no matter how good their products are. But the counterargument, that forcing open a tightly controlled OS creates genuine security risks, is not entirely without merit either. Where exactly that line sits is something courts may end up deciding.