Industry sources say changes to iOS 14 search show Apple is stepping up its efforts to build its own search tools as Google deal comes under antitrust scrutiny
iPhone maker explores building its own search tools as ties to Google come under antitrust scrutiny
Context & Ripple Effects
This FT report is the origin point of a five-year arc: in late 2020, industry sources said changes to iOS 14 search signaled Apple stepping up work on its own search tools just as the Google revenue-share deal drew antitrust attention. What followed validated the read — internal Google documents later detailed plans to contain Apple's search ambitions after Spotlight's 2021 update, by which time sources put Google's annual payment at $18B.
The scrutiny went transatlantic too: the UK CMA opened an investigation into the Chrome-on-iOS revenue share, and years later Eddy Cue testified in US v. Google that Apple was 'actively looking at' reshaping Safari around AI search — a disclosure analysts saw as aimed at downplaying the existing deal's importance.
First-order effects
- Google's default-search position on iPhone — reportedly worth $18B a year by 2021 — faces direct erosion risk if Apple ships competitive native search in iOS and Safari.
- Apple gains leverage in both directions: a credible in-house search option strengthens its hand in the antitrust case and in any renegotiation or replacement of the Google arrangement.
Second-order effects
- Google's response is already documented: internal plans to contain Apple's Spotlight ambitions, and a considered — though rejected — move to limit AI Overviews to its own apps to reduce reliance on Safari traffic.
- Regulators multiply the pressure points: beyond the US case, the CMA probe into the Chrome-on-iOS payments means Apple cannot quietly restructure the deal without inviting scrutiny in multiple jurisdictions.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, mobile search stops being a single default-payment market and becomes a contested layer where browsers, OS-level search, and AI answers compete — with Apple positioned as gatekeeper either way, paid by Google or serving its own results.
- The endgame sketched by Cue's AI-search testimony is that the deal's value rests on a query habit that generative interfaces could dissolve, forcing both companies to rebuild their search economics around AI rather than link lists.
The trend: Smartphone search is shifting from a paid-default duopoly toward OS-native and AI-driven alternatives, with antitrust action accelerating Apple's push for independence.