Google must open Android to rivals in Europe, and the clock is already ticking
Brussels has ordered Google to open Android to rival AI assistants and share search data under the DMA. The Android changes must be done by July 2027.
Android has always been Google’s house — and Brussels has just ordered it to hand keys to the neighbours. Under the Digital Markets Act, the European Commission has determined that Google must open Android to rival AI assistants and share search data with competitors. Failure to comply can bring fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover.
What exactly is Google being forced to change?
Two big things. On Android, rival AI assistants will be able to work the way Gemini does today: users pick their preferred one, wake it by voice and use it inside apps — to book a taxi or suggest chat replies, for instance. On search, Google will have to share with rival engines and AI chatbots the same data, duly anonymised, that it uses to improve its own results, with the declared aim of rebalancing the playing field.
When do the changes take effect?
Search-data sharing starts in January 2027, and the Android changes must be completed by July 2027; a binding compliance order spelling out the details is expected by 27 July this year. It is another chapter in the arm-wrestle between Brussels and big tech, at a moment when AI has become the main battlefield — regulatory pressure that now runs in parallel with Apple’s courtroom war against OpenAI on the other side of the Atlantic. The official DMA framework is on the European Commission’s portal.
If you carry an Android phone, the translation is simple: within a year, the assistant that answers when you say “hey” may finally be your choice — not Google’s.
By Oliver Grant
Image: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
