CMA Strengthens Google Search Choice Screen Proposals to Include AI Assistants

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority published strengthened proposals on 23 September 2026 that would require Google to show UK users a search-provider choice screen on new Android phones and in Chrome — including Chrome on Windows — and to open that screen to AI assistants for the first time.

What the CMA is proposing

Under the published proposals, Google would have to:

• Present a search-service choice screen the first time someone sets up an Android phone or opens Chrome, then prompt existing users annually to choose their default again.
• Allow AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Perplexity to appear as options on that choice screen, provided they meet technical and security criteria the CMA is still finalising.
• Require any search provider shown on the screen — Google included — to clearly attribute publisher content, so users can identify and reach the original source of information.

The consultation on these proposals is open until 9 October 2026, with a final CMA decision expected by the end of the year.

The regulatory context

This builds directly on the CMA's designation of Google's search business with strategic market status (SMS) under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, confirmed in October 2025. Since then the CMA has already imposed three separate conduct requirements on Google Search: a Publisher requirement (from 3 June 2026) letting publishers opt out of having their content used in AI Overviews and model fine-tuning, a Fair Ranking requirement (from 17 June 2026) mandating non-discriminatory ranking, and a Data Portability requirement, also from 17 June 2026.

Today's choice-screen proposal is a revision of an earlier, narrower plan. CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell said: "The way people search for information online is changing, with new services creating fresh opportunities for innovation," and the regulator says it's responding "quickly to the rise of AI assistants, which people are increasingly using as their search service." The earlier version of the choice-screen requirement — covering only traditional search engines — had already drawn criticism over limited real-world reach, with the CMA's own analysis citing an estimated 15 to 35 million UK devices a year excluded from existing choice screens and only around 20% of Android devices actually shown one annually under current arrangements.

This sits alongside separate, earlier CMA action designating Google's mobile platform (Android, the Play Store, Chrome and the Blink browser engine) with strategic market status, which Google publicly called "disappointing, disproportionate and unwarranted", arguing that Android's openness — "24,000 Android phone models from 1,300 phone manufacturers worldwide" — already provides meaningful choice without a mandated screen.

Why it matters

For SEO and search marketers, a choice screen that includes AI assistants is a bigger structural change than it sounds. Today, virtually all default-search traffic on Android and Chrome routes to Google by default; a widely surfaced, annually recurring prompt that puts ChatGPT or Perplexity next to Google as an equal option — specifically for UK users — could meaningfully shift default-search share over time in a market where Google's dominance has been largely uncontested at the OS level. The content-attribution requirement is also notable on its own: if it applies equally to AI assistants shown on the screen, it would be the first UK regulatory requirement forcing AI-native search products to cite sources the way Google's own AI Overviews increasingly do.

This is still a proposal, not a final rule — it's open for consultation until 9 October, and the eligibility criteria for which AI assistants qualify for the screen haven't been finalised. Worth tracking through to the CMA's year-end decision rather than treating today's proposal as settled policy.

Sources

• CMA strengthens proposals allowing people choice over their search service — GOV.UK
• The CMA's designation of Google's mobile ecosystem — Google
• Google's mobile platform — CMA case page, GOV.UK
• Google's general search and search advertising services — CMA case page, GOV.UK