Google spent two decades building Android into a walled garden with really good Wi-Fi. Brussels just handed Gemini's neighbors a key to the fence, and Google is not thrilled about the new roommates.
The Commission Hands Down Two Binding Orders
On July 16, the European Commission issued two binding specification measures against Google under the Digital Markets Act. The first forces Google to give rival AI assistants equal access to 11 groups of Android features currently reserved for Gemini — think voice activation on par with "Hey Google," the ability to take actions inside other apps, and task delegation like booking a taxi or suggesting chat replies. The second orders Google to share anonymized Google Search data with competing search engines and AI chatbots with search features.
The Commission's reasoning: right now, roughly 60% of EU Android users can't get a third-party AI assistant to do what Gemini does natively, because Gemini has full-access privileges rivals don't. Compliance isn't instant — search data sharing kicks in January 2027, and the Android interoperability changes are due to reach users by July 2027.
Google Says Privacy Is the Real Victim Here
Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs, pushed back hard, warning the ruling could weaken privacy and security protections for Europeans and expose private search queries to companies with unproven anonymization practices. It's the same argument Google has made in prior DMA fights, and regulators have heard it before.
The bigger story is what this signals: the EU isn't just policing app stores and browser choice screens anymore — it's treating "AI assistant access" as the next essential utility that needs forced interoperability, the same way it once forced USB-C onto iPhones. If this holds, every dominant platform with a built-in AI assistant just became a target for the same playbook.
Eighteen months from now, "Hey Google" might have to share the stage — whether Google likes it or not.