EU Orders Google to Open Android and Share Search Data With AI Rivals

The European Commission just hit Google with two binding orders: open Android's doors to rival AI assistants, and hand over search data. This is the Digital Markets Act's most consequential strike yet.

Three Key Takeaways

Android must open 11 system features. On July 16, the Commission issued binding specification measures requiring Google to unlock 11 system-level Android features for third-party AI assistants. Users will be able to wake their preferred AI assistant by voice and let it act inside apps on their behalf — hailing a ride, suggesting message replies, looking up recently visited places — all things currently wired to Gemini. Expected to reach users by July 2027.

Search data must be shared. The second order targets Google Search's core moat: anonymized query, click-stream, ranking, and view signals must be shared with competing search engines and AI developers. This is data that only Google can collect at scale thanks to its market position, and rivals have long been locked out. The sharing deadline is January 2027.

Google pushes back hard. Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs, warned on July 16 that the decisions risk weakening privacy and security safeguards for Europeans, and raised concerns about trade secrets and national security.

WangDou's Take

Google's grip on European phones was never about Android being the best OS — it was about the lock-in loop. Search feeds data to Gemini, Gemini is baked into Android, Android defaults to Google Search. The EU just took a hacksaw to that cycle. Eleven system features sounds modest, but think about it: if a user can voice-summon Claude or ChatGPT to book a cab and reply to texts on Android, Gemini's "home court advantage" collapses into a pure product-quality contest. The search data mandate cuts even deeper — Google processes 8.5 billion searches a day, and the click-stream and ranking signals from those queries are the most valuable fuel for training search AI. Now competitors get to burn it too. Of course, enforcement doesn't land until 2027, giving Google plenty of room to slow-walk compliance. But the direction is set: on EU turf, platform moats are being filled in one regulatory shovel at a time.

Source: European Commission, CNBC