"Hey eustella!" — Why We Welcome the EU Commission's Android Decision

The EU Commission has issued two legally binding specification decisions against Google under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). One of them matters enormously to us — and to every European AI company: Google must open Android to third-party AI assistants and grant them equal access to core functions of the operating system.

In practice, that means users will be able to activate the AI assistant of their choice via voice command — just like "Hey Google" today. Third-party assistants will be able to perform actions in apps on the user's behalf: booking a taxi, suggesting replies in chat apps, answering questions about places you've visited. Exactly the kind of deep, agentic integration that has so far been reserved for Google's own AI services like Gemini.

We welcome this decision — and we are ready

Let's be clear: this is exactly the level playing field that European AI companies have been asking for, and that hundreds of millions of EU users deserve. Around 60 percent of smartphone users in the EU are on Android. Until now, whoever built the operating system also decided which AI assistant gets the privileged seat. That is changing.

At eustella, we would gladly integrate deeply into Android for those hundreds of millions of EU users. Voice activation, agentic actions across apps, the full assistant experience — this is precisely what we are building a European sovereign AI agent platform for. Agents are only as useful as the places they can act in, and there is no bigger place in Europe than Android.

For us, this is also about more than distribution. Digital sovereignty is often discussed in terms of where models are trained and where data is stored. But it is just as much about whether European alternatives get a fair shot at reaching users on the devices they already own. This decision is a step in that direction.

The open questions: implementation, costs, hurdles

At the same time, we are realistic. A legally binding decision is not the same as a working API.

We are genuinely curious to see what the technical implementation will look like in practice:

• How accessible will the interfaces be? Will the integration points be well-documented, stable, and open to startups — or buried in certification processes that only well-funded players can navigate?
• What will it cost? Deep OS integration can come with fees, compliance requirements, and engineering overhead. For EU startups like us, the difference between a real opportunity and a theoretical one often comes down to exactly these practical hurdles.
• How level will the playing field really be? Equal access on paper must translate into equal performance, equal latency, and equal capabilities on the device.

The Commission has set the right direction. Whether the decision delivers real contestability will depend on the execution — and on how Google implements the measures by the July 2027 deadline.

We'll be first in line

The changes to Android are set to reach users from July 2027. Google must start sharing search data with eligible providers even earlier, from January 2027.

We will be watching the implementation closely, we will engage with the process where we can — and when the door opens, we intend to walk through it.

Hey eustella? We like the sound of that.