EU Forces Google to Let Rivals Plug Into Android and Search

The European Union has ordered Google to open up two of its most valuable strongholds, Android and Search, to competitors, in a pair of rulings that could reshape how AI assistants and search engines compete on the continent.

The decisions, issued Thursday, fall under the EU's Digital Markets Act, the law that designates the biggest tech platforms as "gatekeepers" and requires them to give rivals access to systems and data comparable to what they give themselves. Unlike a fine, these are behavioral mandates: Google now has to actually change how Android and Search function to fall in line with the law. According to The Verge, the rulings emerged from extensive technical back-and-forth between Google and EU regulators rather than a single punitive judgment.

What's actually changing

The first ruling targets Android. Right now, Google's own Gemini assistant gets deep hooks into the operating system, things like responding to "Hey Google," reaching into apps, and tapping into phone hardware in ways outside developers can't match. The EU's order requires Google to extend that same level of access to rival AI assistants, and crucially, it puts the choice in users' hands rather than Google's. If this plays out as described, an Android user could theoretically set ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity as their default system-level assistant, with the same voice-command triggers and hardware access Gemini currently enjoys exclusively.

The second ruling addresses Google Search and the mountain of data it generates. Competing search engines and AI chatbots, which the EU pointedly notes now function as search engines in many real-world uses, will get access to search data that Google has historically kept locked down. The Verge notes this measure closely mirrors remedies already imposed on Google in its US antitrust case, where the company was ordered to share search data with competitors to help them close the gap.

Google's objections, and the EU's guardrails

Google has fought both measures, arguing they create real risks to user privacy and security and could undermine the integrity of its products. The EU says it built in limits to address that: there will be restrictions on how shared search data can be used, and Google retains the ability to vet which third-party assistants get the deeper level of Android access, ostensibly to keep out bad actors.

Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission's executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, framed the rulings as an attempt to seed real competition where little currently exists. "With today's measures, we want to support innovation and diversity in the European Union, enabling fair competition in the markets of AI assistant for Android devices and search engines," Virkkunen said. "Thanks to these measures we hope to see emerging alternatives to Google Search and Google's AI services, such as Gemini, and that users in the EU can enjoy greater choice of services. All developers, large and small, are welcome to explore these new opportunities, which will certainly benefit users too."

Why this matters beyond Brussels

Android and Search are arguably the two most important assets Google owns. Android runs the majority of the world's smartphones, and Search remains the foundation of Google's advertising business and, increasingly, the training ground for its AI ambitions. Forcing genuine interoperability on both fronts is a direct shot at the mechanism Google has used for years to keep Gemini and its search dominance intertwined with the operating system itself.

For rivals, the upside is obvious. An AI assistant that can only live inside its own app is a fundamentally different product from one that can answer "Hey Google"-style voice commands and reach into other apps on the phone. Similarly, a chatbot or search engine that can draw on the kind of data Google has spent decades accumulating has a much better shot at closing the quality gap that's kept users locked into Google's ecosystem.

Whether this actually plays out as a wave of new default assistants and stronger rival search engines will depend heavily on the technical details of how Google implements these access rules, and how aggressively it exercises its role as gatekeeper for vetting third-party access. The Verge describes this as a developing story, and the practical rollout, including how much friction Google builds into the "vetting" process for rival assistants, is the piece worth watching next.