EU tells Google to open Android to rival AI services

The European Commission has laid out draft measures that would force Google to open key Android capabilities to competing AI services, marking a new front in how the Digital Markets Act is being applied to AI platforms. The proposal, published on April 27, would let third-party AI tools interact more deeply with Android apps and device functions that are currently tied closely to Google’s own services such as Gemini.

This matters because the next platform battle is shifting from search boxes and app stores to AI assistants. If regulators decide that Android gatekeeping now includes which AI service can send messages, trigger app actions, or respond to a wake word, that could reshape how mobile AI competition works across Europe. It is also one of the clearest signs yet that AI assistants are being treated as a competition issue, not just a product feature.

According to the Commission’s preliminary findings, competing AI services should be able to execute tasks through users’ preferred apps, including actions like sending email, ordering food, or sharing photos. The draft also says users should be able to activate rival AI tools with a custom wake word, instead of reserving that level of integration for Google’s own assistant layer. The Commission has opened a public consultation on the measures, with feedback due by May 13.

The broader implication is that Google may have to treat AI interoperability on Android the way earlier DMA cases treated browsers, search defaults, and app distribution. That would give smaller AI companies a more direct route to users, while also raising hard questions about privacy, security, and how much system-level access regulators can require. Either way, as the European Commission’s notice makes clear, the debate over mobile competition is now expanding into the AI stack itself.