Invest2 publishers2 min readPublished
CMA keeps the yearly search prompt Google wanted swapped for a settings menu
Britain's competition regulator has strengthened proposals that would put ChatGPT and Perplexity on Android and Chrome choice screens at setup and once a year after, with a final decision due by the end of 2026.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- The CMA published strengthened proposals on Wednesday that would require Google to show Android and Chrome users a choice of search services, including AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Perplexity.
- Google had asked instead for a permanent option in device settings, arguing an annual screen could become frustrating, and the CMA rejected that and kept the yearly prompt.
- Assistants qualify only if they meet the CMA's technical and security requirements and clearly attribute publisher content so users can reach the original source.
- Consultation comments are due by October 9, with the CMA expecting to make its final decision on the search-choice requirement by the end of 2026.
Compiled by The InvestorSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- constraint Shelf space on the choice screen now has a price for the assistant builders: an answer engine that summarises without crediting and linking its sources has nothing to put in front of the CMA.
- exposure A rival needs to win one of four prompts across a three-year handset to take the default, while Google has to win all four, and that asymmetry did not exist when the default was set once.
- decision Someone has to fund custom integrations for services built nothing like Gemini, and the party that ends up paying will shape how many assistants actually appear.
- contradiction Publisher bodies are pulling against each other inside the same process, with the PPA asking to be excluded and the News Media Association warning the package costs them traffic.
The design difference between what Google asked for and what the regulator kept is who has to remember. A settings toggle waits for a user with a grievance to go looking for it. An annual prompt arrives whether anyone is unhappy or not [4].
Under the proposal an Android buyer sees a list of search services when setting up the phone, and a Chrome user sees one the first time the browser opens [3]. Both are asked again every twelve months [2]. A handset kept three years therefore puts the default in front of its owner four times, once at setup and once a year after [1]. UK users can already change provider today [5].
Gemini is built into Google Search, while ChatGPT and Perplexity are separate services that would need custom integrations to sit in the same slot [8]. The published proposals do not say who does that engineering work.
I would expect the conditions of entry to bind harder than the cadence. A screen is a one-off build, and clear attribution of publisher content changes what a qualifying assistant's answer has to contain [7]. The counter-thesis is compounding: one prompt moves whatever share of users it moves, an annual prompt gets to move them again, and Google spent its own submission arguing the repetition would frustrate people [4]. The CMA did not publish a switching estimate. If the first annual cycle shifts single-digit percentages, this is a screen and Google keeps the traffic. If it shifts double digits, a default that used to hold by inertia has to be re-won every year.
Comments close on October 9, and the CMA expects to decide by the end of 2026 [9]. That is about fourteen months after it opened the case in October 2025, on the back of Google's strategic market status in general search and search advertising [10][2]. The regulator first proposed search choice rules in early 2026 and says the revision reflects how quickly search behaviour is changing [11]. It has already imposed publisher controls in June, then fair ranking and data portability requirements [12]. The Professional Publishers Association has sought an exemption [13], and the News Media Association warned the changes could send less traffic to publishers [14].
What to watch
- Whether the annual cadence survives the October 9 consultation into the CMA's final decision.
- Whether ChatGPT or Perplexity accept the attribution and security conditions or stay off the screen.
- Whether the CMA grants the Professional Publishers Association the exemption it has sought.