Doubao Phone Makes a Comeback: From “Being Surrounded and Suppressed” to “Counter-Surrounding and Counter-Suppressing”
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Doubao Phone Makes a Comeback: From “Being Surrounded and Suppressed” to “Counter-Surrounding and Counter-Suppressing”
Doubao isn’t aiming to build smartphones—it aims to become the entry point for all hardware.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Qiu Xiaofen
On January 26, at Tencent’s annual meeting, Pony Ma made a rare public comment on the Doubao Phone—stating outright that Tencent opposes transmitting users’ smartphone screens to the cloud, calling it “extremely insecure and irresponsible.”
In response, the Doubao Phone team quickly issued a statement affirming strict adherence to user authorization and emphasizing that cloud processing follows the “no storage, no training” principle.
Ma’s remarks also exposed an underlying vulnerability of the Doubao Phone. In December 2025, just one day after its launch by ByteDance, the Doubao Phone faced a severe coordinated “blockade”: its AI Agent triggered resistance from major super-apps—including Meituan, WeChat, and Alibaba-affiliated platforms—due to its access to their traffic and core data, causing its AI functions to nearly collapse.
Nonetheless, the Doubao Phone story is far from over.
According to an exclusive report by TechFlow, ByteDance launched the official version project for the Doubao Phone Assistant at the end of 2025; the new device is expected to launch in mid-to-late Q2 2026.
Industry insiders familiar with the supply chain say ByteDance holds high expectations for the new device—significantly higher than those for the first-generation test model. As before, the second-generation Doubao Phone will continue its collaboration with ZTE’s Nubia: ZTE handles hardware development, while Doubao oversees AI integration.
ByteDance has not yet responded to these reports.
Avoiding further “blockades” will be a critical challenge for the second-generation hardware.
TechFlow learned that the Doubao Phone team has been negotiating with most mainstream app developers—and has already secured certain common permissions with several internet companies (e.g., ride-hailing, food delivery, and ticket-booking services).
Negotiating permissions does not mean Doubao Phone will abandon its original system-level GUI Agent approach. (Author’s note: The Doubao Phone’s GUI Agent strategy fundamentally relies on obtaining elevated OS-level permissions, enabling the AI to “see” the smartphone screen and simulate taps—achieving “automatic phone operation” without requiring app developers to open API interfaces.)
An industry insider told TechFlow this reflects a strategic balancing act: with the first-generation Doubao Phone lacking leverage to negotiate directly with internet platforms, the team opted for the system-level GUI Agent route as a proof-of-concept—bypassing the API authorization hurdle altogether.
Beyond developing its own hardware, Doubao Phone is pursuing a dual-track strategy—engaging various smartphone manufacturers in different forms of cooperation. According to TechFlow, Doubao Phone’s collaboration models with OEMs fall into two main categories:
For large smartphone makers with mature self-developed ecosystems—including models, computing power, entry points, and OS—such as OPPO, vivo, and Honor, Doubao’s cooperation remains primarily technical, including model interoperability and modular product partnerships (e.g., the Doubao Input Method).
These OEMs would never cede control over core entry points; their application-layer voice assistants (e.g., Bubu Tongxue for OPPO, Blue Heart Xiao V for vivo) will remain fully independent.
By contrast, for lower-market-share domestic OEMs categorized as “others”—including Transsion, Meizu, and Lenovo—Doubao adopts a more aggressive negotiation stance: embedding a dedicated Doubao AI entry point directly into their devices, akin to the “Seres–Huawei” collaboration model.
A ByteDance insider confirmed that, under this model, OEMs must pay technology licensing fees and AI service subscription fees.
From co-developing reference devices with Nubia to building alliances across the broader smartphone industry via software-based entry points, Doubao’s breakout strategy in the mobile space is now unmistakable.
Ren Ju, founder of Wanxiang Smartware—a leading edge-side agent startup—told TechFlow that the first-generation Doubao Phone was so swiftly “blockaded” because its user base remained small and it was tightly coupled with a specific Nubia model. “For internet platforms, blocking is simple: just target that single model—precision strikes require minimal effort.”
He added that if the Doubao Phone Assistant enters millions of devices as a software layer—decoupled from any specific model and backed by scale—“blockades” become significantly harder to execute.
For numerous “other” OEMs, integrating Doubao AI also opens up a “surrounding the cities from the countryside” opportunity.
The defining feature of China’s smartphone market in recent years has been extreme concentration: the top six vendors—Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Apple, and Honor—each command roughly 15% market share, leaving only ~5% for all remaining players collectively.
Amid surging memory costs and declining overall shipments, long-tail Chinese smartphone brands face increasingly dire survival conditions.
Several such OEMs have publicly voiced their stance toward Doubao. For instance, Meizu openly declared, “We look forward to deeper collaboration opportunities”; Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing adopted a more ambiguous tone, describing hardware and model vendors as “complementary partners” when asked about the Doubao Phone.
Notably, beyond smartphones, Doubao is pursuing multiple hardware form factors. This year may see the launch of various Doubao-powered devices—including Doubao smart glasses and earbuds.
A supply-chain insider working with ByteDance’s glasses team told TechFlow that ByteDance’s glasses team is “one of the largest in China,” even maintaining a North American R&D unit “to onboard talent poached from Meta.”
TechFlow learned that three distinct industrial design teams contributed to ByteDance’s glasses project before finalizing two architecture directions: one is a display-equipped AI glasses model slated for release in Q4 2026; the other is a non-display AI glasses model set for launch in Q1 this year (most likely post–Spring Festival).
Synergy with Doubao and other mature ByteDance services will serve as the primary selling point for these new hardware products. An insider who has seen the glasses told TechFlow they emphasize all-day photo capture. Recently, media reports revealed that the first-generation glasses will initially target power users of Doubao.
Beyond glasses, TechFlow’s supply-chain sources confirm ByteDance is also developing AI earbuds equipped with cameras.
An industry analyst specializing in smart glasses told TechFlow that both glasses and earbuds remain, for now, “subordinate” to smartphones—yet AI smartphones unlock immense potential for adjacent categories.
He offered an example: Imagine asking your Doubao Phone to perform a task—not by lifting your phone, but simply speaking to your glasses or earbuds; once processed, you receive an audio confirmation (“Task completed”) directly in your ear—truly hands-free.
Indeed, Doubao’s broad hardware initiatives reveal ambitions far exceeding a single smartphone: embedding Doubao-model-powered agents as standard features—or even primary entry points—across future hardware.
And once users adopt this more seamless human-machine interaction, the resulting ecosystem stickiness holds far greater value than any individual hardware product.
As Doubao’s models migrate into hardware, similar narratives are unfolding overseas. Doubao’s rival Google has likewise aggressively deployed Gemini across diverse hardware devices this year.
To that end, Google has not only partnered with former “arch-rival” Apple to co-develop a new Siri—but is also integrating Gemini into AI glasses and embodied AI robots.
An insider told TechFlow that to expand overseas, Doubao Phone is currently negotiating with smartphone makers—including vivo—to embed the “Doubao Phone Assistant” in their international models, though details remain under discussion.
For ByteDance, key AI enablers—models, talent, computing power, and data—are already best-in-class domestically.
What ByteDance lacks is a unified hardware interface to consolidate and deliver these capabilities—and Doubao serves as the ideal vehicle. As a DAU-exceeding-100-million AI application, Doubao has accumulated vast usage data from Chinese users and enjoys strong brand recognition.
“While the ultimate hardware paradigm of the AI era remains unclear, ambitious ByteDance can—and should—explore multiple paths simultaneously, regardless of resource investment,” an industry expert assessed for TechFlow.
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