EU orders Google to open Android’s voice and automation features to rivals

The European Commission says Alphabet must give third-party assistants equal access to 11 Android capabilities, including always-on wake-word detection and screen automation, a move that could lower the battery, privacy, and convenience penalties for alternatives like Home Assistant.

What the Commission decided

The European Commission adopted a decision on July 16, 2026, under the Digital Markets Act requiring Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to open 11 Android features to all assistants on equal terms. Among the features named in the Open Home Foundation’s account are always-on wake-word detection, ambient sensor access, and screen automation.

The foundation said it was consulted by the Commission as part of the DMA process. It described the ruling as a response to Google’s restrictions on Android interoperability, especially in areas that had previously been reserved for Google’s own Gemini assistant.

For users comparing smart-home and voice-assistant setups, the key point is simple: the rules now push Android toward more equal treatment for non-Google assistants. That matters because some features that work efficiently for Google’s own software have been harder for outside developers to access.

Why wake-word detection became the flash point

The Open Home Foundation’s Android developer for Home Assistant said the community spent three years trying to ship always-on wake-word detection in the Home Assistant Companion app. The goal was straightforward: let users say “Okay Nabu” and have Home Assistant’s self-hosted Assist assistant respond.

According to the foundation, those efforts kept running into a technical wall after reboots, and the underlying Android mechanism for always-on listening was not available to third-party apps. The foundation says Android already has a two-stage wake-word system: a small model runs first on a device’s DSP, or digital signal processor, then a second stage confirms the detection on the CPU.

The catch, the foundation says, is that access to that DSP path was blocked to everyone except Google and the device manufacturer. The result was that outside apps had to build a workaround on the CPU instead of using the more efficient system-level path.

That restriction is what drew the foundation’s attention to the European Commission. The organization argued that Google had no technical reason to keep the feature out of reach of other assistants.

The ownership costs for users

This is where the story gets practical for shoppers.

When Home Assistant’s team used a CPU-based workaround called microWakeWord, the foundation says battery usage rose from roughly 1% to 15% with wake-word detection enabled. That is a real ownership cost, not a marketing footnote. If you want hands-free voice control on a phone or tablet, the convenience can come with noticeably worse battery life.

There was also a privacy tradeoff. The foundation said the microphone privacy indicator, the green dot, stayed on permanently because the workaround required full microphone access for detection. The organization said it considers the indicator a good design, but the problem was that it could not offer the stronger guarantee Google gives itself through the isolated DSP-based approach.

On top of that, the workaround required setting Home Assistant as the default assistant to keep the service alive across reboots. The foundation said that would lock users out of Gemini and anything tied to it.

So the real-world cost of the previous setup was not just battery drain. It also meant choosing between assistants, and accepting a less efficient, less isolated implementation if you wanted a non-Google option to behave like a first-class system feature.

Why this matters beyond Home Assistant

The Open Home Foundation framed the Commission’s decision as bigger than one app. It said the ruling is a win for privacy, choice, and sustainability in smart homes, and a sign that regulation can level the digital market playing field.

That claim matters because Android is not only a phone platform. It is also the base layer for many smart-home control points, voice assistants, and companion apps that depend on low-power listening, sensors, and automation. If those capabilities become available on equal terms, third-party assistants may be able to compete without the same battery or privacy penalties.

The foundation specifically pointed to ambient sensor access and screen automation as part of the set of features that must be opened. Those are the kinds of permissions and system hooks that can make an assistant feel integrated instead of bolted on. For comparison shoppers, that may mean less reason to stay with the default assistant just because it works better at the system level.

There is also an industry signal here. The Commission’s action under the DMA suggests regulators are willing to examine not only app store access and messaging, but also how deeply platform owners can reserve device capabilities for their own services.

The catch: policy change is not the same as immediate product change

The Commission’s decision is important, but it does not instantly transform every Android phone into a new assistant playground. The evidence here shows a legal and regulatory obligation to open features on equal terms, not a finished consumer rollout with a simple date and check box.

That means users should not expect every affected app to gain full access overnight. Platform implementation, developer support, device support, and software updates still have to happen. The Open Home Foundation said public developer documentation had not existed for the blocked wake-word path, which hints at the kind of engineering work still ahead.

For buyers, that means patience. If you are choosing a voice assistant or smart-home ecosystem today, the decision may not yet change the product you can buy this week. But it does improve the odds that a future Android assistant can work more efficiently, with less battery drain and fewer compromises.

Buy, wait, or skip?

For Home Assistant users and Android interoperability watchers, this is a buy/wait story, not a skip.

If you already value self-hosted assistants, privacy-minded smart-home control, or alternatives to Gemini, the European Commission’s decision is worth attention because it attacks a real platform-level bottleneck. The Open Home Foundation’s figures make the stakes concrete: a CPU workaround that pushed battery use from about 1% to 15% and kept the microphone indicator on permanently is not a satisfying long-term solution.

If you are a general consumer, the best move is to wait and watch. The policy shift is promising, but the practical product benefits depend on how quickly Google, device makers, and developers implement the new access rules. The big win is that the gatekeeping argument has been weakened. The remaining question is how much of that opening reaches ordinary users, and how fast.