The European Commission issued two packages of mandatory specification measures under the Digital Markets Act. Google must give rival AI assistants access to the same Android features that only Gemini reaches today, and share part of Google Search's data with other search engines. Not a fine - an order for exactly what to build and by when.
- 16 July 2026: the EC issued two packages of mandatory measures against Google under the DMA - an order for what to do, with no fine.
- Android opens system-level access to rival AI assistants - voice activation and in-app actions, just like Gemini.
- Google shares search data from January 2027; the Android changes reach users from July 2027; oversight runs two years.
Brussels isn't fining Google this time - it's ordering how Google behaves. The Commission issued mandatory specification measures under the Digital Markets Act (DMA): Android must give rival AI assistants access to the same features that only its own Gemini reaches today, and Google Search must share part of its data with competing search engines. Not advice, not a fine - an order for exactly what to build and by when.
Who pulls the strings - that's the whole question here. Until now the strings sat in Google's hands: its assistant lives at system level, rivals scratch at the glass from outside. The Commission isn't arguing about who makes the better model - it's touching the stage itself: access to the microphone and to the data nobody else can collect at that scale. This is a regulator that has figured out where the moat is - not in the model, in the platform underneath it. And instead of pulling out a fine, it dictates the architecture.
Here's what I take from this. Scale and system access were the quiet advantage - the thing no benchmark shows. Force them open, and the fight for AI assistant shifts from 'who sits on Android' to 'who makes the more useful assistant'. For those of us building on top: watch who controls the entry point - the voice command, the in-app action, the data flow. That's where it gets decided. July 2027 will show whether an order on paper becomes real access on the phone.