The EU Just Forced Google to Hand Over Android's AI Controls

The EU has ordered Google to open Android's system-level AI features to third-party competitors by August 1, 2027, granting rival apps the same access to voice activation, sensor data, and on-device hardware that Gemini currently enjoys exclusively. The ruling identifies 11 specific access points and contrasts with Apple's decision to withhold advanced Siri features from EU users rather than comply with similar interoperability requirements. If you build an AI assistant outside Google, you now have a legal path to run it natively on every Android phone in Europe at system level - the same depth Google keeps for Gemini. Apple chose to block its AI in the EU rather than open these doors; Google is opening them, which means the competitive AI market just moved from app-store segregation to platform integration.