The EU Just Ordered Google to Open Android to Rival AI Assistants and Sell Access to Its Search Data

TL;DR

On July 16, the European Commission adopted two binding specification decisions against Google under the Digital Markets Act, and they hit the company where it is most comfortable: distribution and data. The first forces Android to give rival AI assistants the same system hooks Gemini enjoys, voice activation included, with users seeing the change from July 2027. The second forces Google to share the anonymized ranking, query, click, and view data it uses to tune Search with competing search engines and with AI chatbots that offer search, on a regulated pricing formula, starting January 2027. Google's chief legal officer says the decisions risk undermining privacy and security. If you build assistants or AI search, this is the largest distribution-and-data unlock a regulator has ever handed you.

Two Decisions, One Moat

Specification decisions are not fines. They are the Commission telling a designated gatekeeper exactly what compliance with an existing obligation looks like, which from Google's perspective is worse than a fine: "exactly" removes every inch of creative-compliance wiggle room. The proceedings opened in January 2026, draft measures circulated in the spring, and the final, binding versions landed this week.

One decision covers Article 6(7) of the DMA, the interoperability obligation. The other covers Article 6(11), the search data sharing obligation. Together they target the two assets that make an incumbent assistant and an incumbent search engine nearly impossible to compete with: OS-level distribution, and a quarter century of logged human intent.

What Rival Assistants Get on Android

The Commission's complaint was blunt: competitors' AI assistants have only restricted access to key Android functionality, while Google's own AI services enjoy full access. On a platform that is roughly 60 percent of the EU phone market by the Commission's own framing, that asymmetry decides which assistant people actually use.

The Article 6(7) decision orders parity. Rival assistants must be able to get:

• Voice-command activation comparable to "Hey Google", so a user can summon their chosen assistant hands-free.
• The ability to act inside apps on the user's behalf: the Commission's own examples are booking a taxi, suggesting chat replies, and answering location queries.
• Access to the same hardware and software features that Google's own services use, with safeguards for privacy, device integrity, and security.

The changes apply from the next Android version, which reporting places in July 2027. For years the only phrase an out-of-the-box Android phone listened for was "Hey Google". From mid-2027 in the EU, that reflex can belong to someone else's model.

The Search Data Order Is the Bigger Deal

The Article 6(11) decision compels Google to share anonymized ranking, query, click, and view data, the same telemetry it uses to optimize its own results, with third parties. The recipients are not just rival search engines: the Commission explicitly makes AI chatbots with search functionality eligible. That covers OpenAI's ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude with web search, and any indie product that answers questions off the open web and qualifies.

Google has spent 25 years compiling the most complete diary of what humans want, typed in one query at a time. The Commission did not order it to hand over the diary. It ordered it to sell redacted photocopies at a regulated price, and for an AI search startup, redacted photocopies of that diary are still gold: query distributions and click behavior are precisely the signals that separate a search index from a search product.

The mechanics, per the decision: a multi-layered anonymization method developed with internal and external privacy experts and aligned with the draft joint guidelines on how the DMA interacts with GDPR, a fair pricing formula with a transparent access process, and a documented check that lets Google assess serious cybersecurity or data-protection risks before a given disclosure. Sharing begins in January 2027.

Google Disagrees, Loudly

Google's chief legal officer Kent Walker warned in the company's response that the decisions "risk undermining vital privacy and security guardrails for millions of Europeans." The sharper claim:

"Europeans' private searches would be exposed to unfamiliar companies, without adequate anonymisation of the data and without user knowledge or consent."

The concern is not invented. Search logs are notoriously hard to anonymize; the canonical cautionary tale is AOL's 2006 release of "anonymized" query logs, where reporters re-identified individual users from their searches within days. The Commission says the multi-layered anonymization method exists precisely because of that history. Still, there is something to savor in Google arguing that search data is too dangerous to share with anyone except Google.

The stakes for stonewalling are codified: DMA non-compliance can draw fines of up to 10 percent of worldwide annual turnover, rising to 20 percent for repeat infringements. Google has not announced an appeal, but its statement reads like a company that is not done arguing.

What This Means for Builders

If you ship an assistant, EU Android is about to become a real distribution surface rather than a sideloaded app squinting through a notification-listener straw. Hotword activation and in-app task delegation are the difference between an assistant people configure once and an assistant people actually use. The vendors best positioned to exploit this are the ones already building agentic phone experiences, but the hooks are the same for a two-person startup.

If you build AI search, January 2027 puts a price tag on a feed you previously could not buy at any price. Today that gap is filled with scraping and SERP-API arbitrage of varying legality and freshness. A regulated formula with a transparent access process changes the unit economics of competing with Google on answer quality.

Temper it with three caveats. The obligations are EU-only, so expect geofenced compliance rather than global rollouts. Anonymization aligned with GDPR guidance will blunt the long tail, which is where much of the value hides. And both deadlines are far enough out for litigation, lobbying, and a change of political weather to intervene.

Key Takeaways

• The European Commission adopted two binding DMA specification decisions against Google on July 16: AI assistant interoperability on Android (Article 6(7)) and search data sharing (Article 6(11)).
• Rival assistants get voice-command activation, in-app task delegation, and the same hardware and software access as Gemini, applying from the next Android version in July 2027.
• Google must share anonymized ranking, query, click, and view data with rival search engines and AI chatbots that offer search, on a fair pricing formula, from January 2027.
• Google objects on privacy and security grounds; non-compliance risks fines of up to 10 percent of global turnover under the DMA.
• For builders the unlock is EU-only, arrives in 6 to 12 months, and its real value depends on how much signal survives the anonymization layer.

Sources: European Commission (DMA announcement, July 16), European Commission press corner (proceedings opening), European Sting (full press release text), 9to5Google, CNBC