The EU has ordered Google to open up Android and Search to rival AI assistants, with the European Commission handing down two legally binding decisions on Thursday, 16 July 2026 under the Digital Markets Act.
It is one of the sharpest interventions yet in Brussels’ long campaign to loosen Big Tech’s grip on the software people use every day.
What the EU is forcing Google to do
The Commission’s two specification decisions tackle different corners of Google’s empire, as reported by France24.
The first forces Google to let competing AI assistants run properly on Android, plugging into features that until now have been reserved largely for Google’s own tools, including its Gemini assistant.
In practice, that means European users will be able to fire up a rival assistant with a voice command, let it carry out actions inside apps, serve up suggested replies and answer questions based on recent on-device activity.
It is the kind of deep system access Android has historically kept for itself.
Interoperability is the nerdy word at the heart of all this. It simply means rival software getting to talk to a platform on the same terms the platform gives itself, and it is exactly the advantage Google has quietly enjoyed by making Gemini the default brain baked into Android.
The second decision goes after Search.
Google will have to hand over anonymised search data to eligible third-party providers under clearer and more effective conditions, sharing the same categories of data it already uses to sharpen its own results.
That pool of eligible recipients explicitly includes AI chatbots that offer a search function.
The knock-on effect for Google’s AI rivals
For everyone building an AI assistant that is not called Gemini, this is a big deal. Access to Android’s inner workings and to Google’s search data lowers two of the tallest walls in the industry, giving smaller players a fighting chance to compete on features rather than raw reach.
It also fits a wider pattern of Brussels leaning on Big Tech through the Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s rulebook for so-called gatekeepers.
The framework is designed to pry open dominant platforms, and Google’s search and mobile grip has long been the obvious target for regulators looking to reset the balance.
Although the user-facing changes apply to Europe, the ripple effects will not stop at the bloc’s borders.
Once Google builds the machinery to share data and open Android to rivals, pressure tends to mount for those options to travel, and regulators elsewhere often borrow Brussels’ homework.
When the Google changes take effect
None of this happens overnight. Google must begin sharing search data with eligible providers from January 2027, while the Android interoperability changes are expected to reach users from July 2027.
The decisions are legally binding but do not rule that Google breached the Act, carry no fines, and remain open to judicial review, so a court challenge is very much on the table.
