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Google fights EU orders that would hand rival AI assistants Gemini's Android access on 60% of EU phones
Google is contesting two July 16 EU orders that would give ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity Gemini's system-level access on about 60% of EU smartphones. The duty that matters most for voice, letting rival wake words run alongside Google's, is not due until August 2028.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Under the first order, Google must start sharing anonymized search data with third-party search engines and AI chatbots from January 2027.
- The second order requires Google to open 11 specific AI interoperability features on Android by mid-2027.
- Rival assistants would be able to take voice commands on a locked phone and interact with other apps in ways third-party assistants currently cannot.
- Google has long argued that its integrated Android and AI design is better for performance and security, and that opening it up could create vulnerabilities.
- Google already had a 4.125 billion euro fine upheld against it over earlier Android restrictions, according to Crypto Briefing.
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Why it matters
- capability ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity would compete with Gemini at the moment a user first asks the phone for help, without waiting for the user to open their apps.
- decision OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity have to decide how much to spend on Android integrations now, against deadlines that Google's challenge could push back.
- cost Google carries the engineering bill for secure APIs, anonymizing pipelines and third-party testing, and the main users of that work would be its rivals in AI assistants.
Nineteen months separate the first duty from the last [1]. Search-data sharing opens the schedule and concurrent hotword detection closes it. Crypto Briefing describes that final piece as the technically complex always-listening capability [13]. The 11 interoperability features sit between them. What they contain matters more than how many there are: they reach the same app interactions and sensor data Google uses to make Gemini contextually aware [16].
For OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity, the orders are "distribution at scale", in Crypto Briefing's phrase [14]. The outlet calls them the most aggressive regulatory attempt yet to break Google's grip on the AI assistant market [12]. Google has been a designated gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act since 2023 [8]. The report does not say what form its challenge takes, or whether Google has asked for the orders to be paused while it argues.
If the orders stand as written, search engines and chatbots get query data first [4]. Assistant distribution follows by mid-2027 [5], and Crypto Briefing says rival AI companies have roughly a year to prepare their Android integrations [15]. If the challenge delays the orders, that year stretches and Gemini keeps its system-level position on Android for longer [3]. There is also a middle outcome. Google could meet the deadlines while pressing its security objection [7], and the APIs rivals get might then be narrower than the ones Gemini uses.
I think the hotword duty decides who owns voice on EU Android phones. It arrives last, so even if every order stands, Gemini keeps its wake-word advantage until the schedule closes [6]. The counter-case is that app control and sensor context matter more to users than a spoken name, and those appear to come with the mid-2027 package [5]. If a rival assistant wins meaningful use on EU Android phones before the hotword duty takes effect, the wake word was not the prize and this view is wrong.
What to watch
- Whether Google asks for the July 16 orders to be suspended while its challenge is heard.
- Whether OpenAI, Anthropic or Perplexity commit engineering to Android integrations timed to the mid-2027 features.
- How closely the APIs Google publishes for the 11 features match what Gemini itself uses.