EU deadline today: Google must open Android's AI layer to rivals
DMA.100220 forces wake-word, context and app-action parity with Gemini, plus search-data sharing — but real access waits for Android 18 in 2027.
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Today is the deadline, not a proposal
July 27 is the Commission's binding-decision date on case DMA.100220, six months after it opened specification proceedings on Jan 27. Android interoperability now arrives by order, not by Google's goodwill.
The four layers Gemini kept to itself
The order cracks open invocation (custom wake words, gestures, activation with the screen off), context (on-device app data, screen contents, sensors, keyboard), app actions (autonomous app control, OS commands, screen automation), and resources (Gemini Nano access, your own on-device models, background execution).
Claude and ChatGPT get OS-level parity
Rival assistants gain the same system privileges Google reserved for Gemini across Android's ~58% EU share. As the Commission frames it, a sideloaded app that can't wake on voice or read context isn't competing in the same market as one embedded at the OS.
Google also has to share its search data
Separate July 16 guidance forces Google to hand AI chatbots with search features the same signals it uses to tune its own results, anonymized through a multi-layer method. If you're building search-grounded AI, that's a data moat cracking open.
But you can't ship on it until 2027
Most measures only bind with Android 18 on Aug 1, 2027; concurrent wake-word support waits for Android 19 in 2028. The Commission itself warns a permission dialog "that drives most users away" could quietly preserve Gemini's edge.