Google has been ordered by European regulators to loosen its grip on two of its most valuable assets, the Android operating system and its search engine, in a pair of decisions that could reshape how people use artificial intelligence on their phones.
The European Commission issued the orders on July 16 under the Digital Markets Act, the sweeping law that regulates the most powerful technology "gatekeepers." The first decision requires Google to give rival AI assistants, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Perplexity, the same access to Android's system features that it grants its own assistant, Gemini. The second requires Google to share search data with competing search engines and AI services.
Choice of assistant
At the heart of the Android decision is the question of who gets to be the assistant built deeply into a phone. Today, Google's own Gemini enjoys privileged access to Android's capabilities. Under the ruling, users, rather than Google, should be able to choose a rival assistant and grant it comparable access to their device and data, so that a competitor could, in principle, be summoned and act on the phone much as Gemini can now.
The Commission framed the move as preventing Google from using its control of Android, which runs on the majority of the world's smartphones, to entrench its position in the fast-growing market for AI assistants. It said the requirements come with safeguards, including conditions that rival services must meet on privacy and security before gaining access.
Sharing the data that feeds search
The second decision addresses a different kind of advantage: the vast store of data that Google accumulates from billions of searches. Rivals have long argued that this trove creates a near-insurmountable barrier, since no competitor can match the volume of information Google uses to refine its results. The order requires Google to share some of that data, in anonymised form, with competing search and AI services, with the obligation reported to begin in January 2027.
Google objects
Google reacted sharply. Its chief legal officer, Kent Walker, said the decisions "risk undermining vital privacy and security guardrails for millions of Europeans" and argued that the company had offered alternative ways to meet the law's goals without exposing users to harm. Allowing third-party assistants deep access to a device, the company has warned, could create new security risks.
European officials countered that the orders contain robust protections, and that opening the market to competition is precisely what the Digital Markets Act was designed to achieve. Google can challenge the decisions in the EU courts, though the bloc has generally prevailed in its recent confrontations with the technology industry.
A wider shift
The rulings mark an escalation in the long confrontation between Brussels and Silicon Valley. Where earlier cases against Google ended in multibillion-euro fines, the Digital Markets Act gives regulators the power to dictate specific changes in behaviour rather than simply punish past conduct. For users in Europe, the practical effect, if the orders survive, could be a genuine choice of which AI assistant runs on their phone, and a search market in which Google's data advantage is, for the first time, partly shared with its rivals.
