On September 23, the UK’s competition regulator proposed a search choice screen for new Android phones and for Chrome. It can list up to 12 services, including AI assistants such as ChatGPT or Perplexity if they meet technical and security criteria. Comments are due by October 9.
New to this? Read it in simple words
- The UK’s competition regulator wants new Android phones and Chrome to show a search choice screen.
- The screen can list up to 12 services. AI assistants like ChatGPT or Perplexity can be on it.
- People could then pick their main search service more easily. Today Google handles most searches in the UK.
- This is only a proposal. A final decision is expected by the end of the year.
- Choice screen
- A screen that asks you to pick a service yourself, instead of getting a default.
- Regulator
- A government body that makes and enforces rules for an industry.
A screen with up to 12 choices
The screen would appear when someone sets up a new Android phone, and it could not be skipped. Chrome users on Windows, Mac, iPhone, and iPad would see it at the first big Chrome update after the rules start, and on every new install.
It would list up to 12 services in random order, and users would have to scroll through all of them. If more than 12 services qualify, the screen shows the five most popular and seven others chosen at random.
Once a year, users would also get a small reminder that they can switch, which they could ignore. Phones already in use would not get the new screen. The CMA says technical limits are the reason.
The screen would appear on new Android phones and in Chrome. Phones already in use would not get it.
AI assistants can join the list
For the first time, AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Perplexity could appear next to search engines, if they meet technical and security criteria. Every service on the screen would have to credit the publishers whose content it uses.
CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said the regulator is “responding quickly to the rise of AI assistants”.
The screen is about the default search service. It does not let people replace Google’s own assistant, Gemini, and it does not cover Circle to Search. Some early reports described the plan more broadly than the CMA’s text does.
Google itself would check every six months which services qualify. It would have to tell the CMA why it rejects a service.
Google objects, and switching is rare
The CMA gave Google “strategic market status” in search on October 10, 2025, under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. That status lets the CMA set rules of conduct for the company.
In March, Google said yearly choice screens “would annoy users”. It asked for a permanent switch in the phone’s settings instead. We found no new Google statement on this version.
The CMA says Google handles more than 90 percent of UK searches. Studies it cites found that only about 1 percent of users switch after a choice screen.
A final decision is expected by the end of the year. The rules would then start within six months.
Sources
Every fact in this story comes from the sources below. Open them to check our work.
- 1Primary source · September 23, 2026CMA strengthens proposals allowing people choice over their search service UK Competition and Markets Authority
- 2Primary source · September 23, 2026Consultation: User Choice Conduct Requirement – Google’s general search services UK Competition and Markets Authority
- 3Primary source · March 18, 2026Google’s response to the CMA’s consultation on potential requirements for Search Google
- 4Research · September 23, 2026Google faces UK push to put AI assistants on Android, Chrome choice screens Reuters via Deccan Chronicle
- 5Research · September 23, 2026UK competition watchdog wants to give Android and Chrome users more search engine choices Engadget
- 6Research · September 23, 2026UK regulator toughens Google choice screen proposals as AI assistants rise The Next Web
- 7Research · September 23, 2026Google faces 12-slot UK search choice screen open to AI assistants PPC Land
We read the CMA’s press release and its 72-page consultation, then compared them with Reuters, Engadget, The Next Web, and PPC Land. Google’s view comes from its March response, because we found no new statement. Figures on switching and market share are the CMA’s.