Brussels just told Google exactly how to let rivals compete with Gemini — not with a vague warning, but with dates. The European Commission issued the order on July 16 under the Digital Markets Act, the same law it has already used to fine both Google and Apple for locking out competitors.
Two things change. First, rival AI assistants get the same system-level access to Android that Gemini already has: voice activation similar to "Hey Google," plus the ability to book a taxi or suggest replies in a messaging app straight from a third-party assistant. That's due by July 2027. Second, competing search engines get access to anonymized Google Search data — the same data Google uses to tune its own algorithms — starting January 2027, under a pricing formula still being worked out.
The stakes are bigger than they sound. Android runs 60% of phones in the EU, and until now Google alone decided which assistant got a shortcut into the operating system and which stayed just another app icon. For a company like Perplexity, or for ChatGPT's mobile app, that's the difference between being the assistant people actually use and being one they have to go dig up.
Google has been through this playbook before with search and browser choice screens in the EU, and each time it found a way to satisfy the letter of the rule while keeping its grip on the entry points that matter. The data will be anonymized through a "multi-layered" method, and Google gets to flag cybersecurity risks before handing anything over — a lever it can use to slow the whole process down.
What happens next depends on enforcement. Brussels has plenty of practice issuing billion-euro fines. It has far less practice forcing a tech giant to share data in a way that actually shifts market share among AI assistants.
