EU orders Google to open Android to rival AI assistants, share Search data

Two binding Digital Markets Act decisions force Google to grant third-party agents system-level Android access by July 2027 and share anonymized Search data by January 2027, restructuring how AI agents reach 427 million EU devices.

The European Commission on July 16 issued two binding Digital Markets Act decisions forcing Google to pry open Android for rival AI assistants and to share anonymized Search data with competing engines and chatbots. The orders convert what had been an interoperability debate into a scheduled restructuring of the agent layer on 427 million EU devices, according to Omdia figures cited by CNN.

The Android decision names 11 feature groups that must be exposed to eligible third-party assistants, including voice invocation, screen context, cross-app actions, and background task execution. Most measures are due by July 2027, with concurrent wake-word support arriving in a later Android 19 phase, per The Verge. On the data side, Google has to finalize the Search dataset by November 2026 and begin sharing it in January 2027 on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms, with pricing published the same month. Noncompliance carries fines up to 10% of global annual turnover, and 20% for repeat infringements.

Google’s response arrived quickly. In a blog post, Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google and Alphabet, argued the orders “risk undermining vital privacy and security guardrails for millions of Europeans,” and warned the Search remedy would “weaken citizen privacy, risk business trade secrets and endanger national security.” The Trump administration has separately argued the DMA unfairly targets US firms.

The competitive read is straightforward. ChatGPT sits on roughly 30% of EU smartphones already, and Runar Bjorhovde, an Omdia analyst, told CNN the new rules let OpenAI reach users while “completely bypassing the need to engage with Android.” Business-focused agent platforms like Glean, Dust, and LemonLime stand to gain the clearest runway into EU SMB deployments, where system-level Android hooks were previously the wall.

Enterprise security teams inherit the harder problem. Roman Stanek, CEO of Good Data AI, told Computerworld that IT organizations “need to stop treating AI assistant as a single, well-understood permission and start treating it as a category risk,” with device policies naming which agents may hold system-level rights.

Apple offered the counterfactual in June 2026, declining to launch its new Siri AI in the EU rather than comply. Google, with Android’s install base, doesn’t have that option.

EU orders Google to open Android to rival AI assistants, share Search data

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