EU Orders Google to Open Android Features to Rival AI Assistants
The European Union ordered Google to give rival AI assistants access to Android's microphone, camera, and screen features by June 2027, enforcing Digital Markets Act compliance for open competition.
What Happened
Google has been ordered by the EU to open up key Android handset features to rival AI voice assistants. The E.U. orders Google to open Android mic, camera and screen to rival AI assistants, with Google ordered to give A.I. rivals more access on Android smartphones.
This regulatory action represents a significant enforcement of the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which targets large tech platforms to ensure fair competition. The order specifically targets Google's dominant position in the Android ecosystem and its control over critical hardware features that modern AI assistants rely on.
Strategic Importance
The DMA was designed to level the playing field for smaller competitors and ensure that dominant platforms like Google cannot use their scale to unfairly advantage their own services. By requiring Google to grant API access to Android's core features—microphone, camera, and screen—the EU is preventing the company from leveraging its hardware control to favor its own AI offerings over competitors like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, or other emerging AI assistants.
Compliance and Timeline
Google must comply with the order by June 2027, giving the company approximately one year to restructure how Android handles third-party AI assistant integration. This precedent-setting decision signals that regulators worldwide will continue scrutinizing how Big Tech companies control the infrastructure underlying AI deployment.
Broader Regulatory Context
This enforcement action is part of a larger EU strategy to curb Big Tech dominance through the DMA. Apple lost a legal challenge against the European Union's Digital Markets Act after the EU General Court upheld the classification of iOS and the App Store as gatekeeper services, with the DMA requiring large platforms to follow competition rules designed to increase user choice and reduce platform lock-in, and the ruling strengthening Europe's hand in its long-running push to rein in Big Tech, especially around app stores, payments, browsers, and interoperability.