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Author | Huang Yu
Editor | Zhang Xiaoling
Eighteen years ago, Apple brought the mobile phone into an intelligent era composed of independent apps with the launch of the iPhone, establishing the &#34;walled garden&#34; ecosystem that continues to this day. Eighteen years later, the signal for a software ecosystem transformation has sounded again, but this time, the igniter of the conflict is not a hardware giant, but a new generation of internet companies attempting to rewrite the software order.
On December 1st, ByteDance, in collaboration with ZTE, launched the &#34;Doubao Phone&#34; — nubia M153, which created a huge wave in the entire tech circle. This phone, deeply embedded with the Doubao Phone Assistant in its system, was sold out immediately upon its release, with the first batch of 30,000 units being snatched up.
At the same time, Doubao has provoked the most sensitive nerves of the entire mobile internet ecosystem.
The Doubao Phone Assistant is an &#34;AI Commander&#34; with system-level permissions that can simulate human operations, directly challenging the traditional status of app developers as &#34;data controllers,&#34; igniting fierce debates over data authorization, privacy invasion, and system security, and shaking the commercial ecology and traffic foundation of super apps.
Currently, WeChat, Taobao, and some banking apps have set up &#34;security firewalls&#34; to counter and besiege the Doubao Phone Assistant.
ByteDance, which has pushed Doubao to the top position of domestic AI native applications, has successfully showcased the cross-app operation capabilities of AI Agents in the form of a &#34;prototype,&#34; also announcing a comprehensive upgrade in the competition for the next generation of super entry points.
The offensive from ByteDance and the defensive measures from Tencent resemble the reenactment of the previous head-to-head battle between the two companies. From the mobile internet era to the AI era, the competition among tech giants for super traffic entry points has never ceased.
This is not only a contest of technological routes but also a game involving the interests of mobile hardware manufacturers, internet giants, AI startups, and more. In this battle concerning the reshaping of the future software ecosystem order, no party can withdraw.
<h2>The Hand of God</h2>
On traditional smartphones, each app seems like an isolated island, with no information flow between them, isolated from each other to protect user privacy and operational autonomy. This is the sandbox isolation mechanism that has gradually formed in the long history of mobile phone development.
However, on this collaborative phone, the Doubao Phone Assistant plays the role of &#34;AI Commander,&#34; capable of calling services across applications with a single command to help users order takeout, book flights, compare prices for shopping, and even reply to WeChat messages and operate mini-program games.
The Doubao Phone Assistant achieves cross-application automated operations through the system-level permission INJECT_EVENTS, which is regarded as the &#34;Hand of God&#34; in the Android ecosystem, capable of simulating user clicks and reading screen content. Its core capability lies in breaking down the barriers between apps in the mobile internet era.
This is a revolutionary manifestation of the AI Agent attempting to replace traditional apps and become the user's task manager. However, this cross-application capability has quickly faced resistance from existing ecological giants
As a national-level application, WeChat has become the first application that some Doubao phone users discovered does not authorize Doubao Phone Assistant to operate.
On the evening of December 2, multiple users reported that when using Doubao Phone Assistant to operate phone functions on the nubia M153, if it involved operating WeChat, there would be abnormal exits from WeChat, and even login failures.
A WeChat-related person told Wall Street Insight: &#34;There is nothing particularly unusual; it may have triggered existing security and risk control measures.&#34;
According to Wall Street Insight, Taobao also experienced frequent human verification prompts, crashes, or forced account logouts when using Doubao Phone Assistant.
At the same time, banking apps represented by China Construction Bank and China Merchants Bank would prompt that the app cannot be used in screen recording and other states.
This series of situations exposes the legal and compliance dilemmas faced by AI Agents in implementation.
In response to these issues, Doubao has made statements.
On the evening of December 3, the Doubao Phone Assistant team announced that after receiving user feedback, Doubao has subsequently removed the ability to operate WeChat through the phone assistant. Currently, WeChat accounts that were banned from logging in on the nubia M153 are gradually being unblocked, and users can wait for a while and try to log in again.
Doubao stated that current industry AI assistants need to use INJECT_EVENTS system-level permissions (or similar accessibility permissions) to achieve cross-application automation; invoking this permission requires user authorization, which is disclosed in the permission list of Doubao Phone Assistant.
This is also a point of contention between major apps and Doubao: does user authorization replace third-party platform authorization? Clearly, WeChat and Taobao have not allowed this.
To quell the controversy, Doubao emphasized that it takes user privacy very seriously. For example, screen and operation processes will not be stored on cloud servers, and all related content will not enter model training, ensuring user privacy security.
At the same time, Doubao also emphasized that the version released by Doubao Phone Assistant is a &#34;technical preview version,&#34; not aimed at ordinary consumers, but an exploratory product for the industry and AI technology enthusiasts. Some functions and interactions are quite innovative, and there is currently no clear industry consensus.
Under issues such as conflicts of interest and data security, some third-party apps are clearly reluctant to open authorization to AI Agents. Therefore, it can be seen that Doubao has chosen a position that allows for both advancement and retreat, opting to take the first step with a &#34;prototype.&#34;
<h2>The Importance of Security</h2>
Doubao Phone seems to have opened Pandora's box with its &#34;God's hand,&#34; but in fact, AI phones are not the first launched by Doubao.
2024 is recognized as the &#34;Year of AI Phones,&#34; as this year Huawei, Honor, OPPO, vivo, and other phone manufacturers successively released AI phones, integrating AI capabilities into their systems, all proclaiming the slogan &#34;One sentence to let the AI phone assistant help you work.&#34;
However, most of these attempts remain at the level of embellishing features or require more authorized application calls, resembling &#34;partial optimization&#34; in the mobile internet era, without truly touching the foundation of the existing app ecosystem or generating significant waves in the user market
When it comes to risk control, WeChat will also promptly counteract some AI Agent's related permissions. In fact, there have been signs of WeChat banning AI Agents for a while. In April this year, it warned about third-party tools stealing chat records, and in August, it banned a batch of AI permissions, even Huawei's Xiao Yi and Xiaomi's Xiao Ai couldn't access WeChat.
For AI phones to become true AI Agents, there are currently two technical branches in the market: one is the intent framework, which requires authorization from third-party apps but is relatively mature with low hardware computing power requirements; the other is a pure visual solution, which does not require authorization but still needs improvement and has higher hardware computing power requirements.
Currently, mobile phone manufacturers are clearly more cautious about AI Agents operating across applications, and thus tend to prefer the intent framework model.
Taking vivo as an example, last year, vivo released a white paper on the intent framework, and this year, the intent framework has been upgraded to 2.0, fully compatible with the MCP protocol.
At the same time, vivo launched the A2A protocol for adaptive agents. Zhou Wei, vice president of vivo and head of the vivo AI Global Research Institute, pointed out: &#34;With it, developers can create agents and configure cards online based on the Agent protocol throughout the entire process, and then distribute them across all channels of vivo through a unified intent framework and agent container.&#34;
It must be admitted that reaching agreements with more third-party apps is not an easy task.
To reduce resistance, ByteDance chose to take a step back. On December 5th, Doubao Mobile Assistant announced plans to make some standardized adjustments to the AI operation capabilities of mobile phones in certain scenarios over the next period, including limiting the use of score brushing and incentive brushing, and restricting financial applications.
At the same time, ByteDance representatives stated that they are actively seeking in-depth communication with various application manufacturers, hoping to promote the formation of clearer and more predictable rules to avoid denying users' reasonable rights to use AI in a one-size-fits-all manner.
Currently, in this battle for discourse power in the AI era, mobile manufacturers and Doubao face certain developmental bottlenecks in exploring system-level AI capabilities due to authorization issues.
Wu Shenkuo, a doctoral supervisor at the Law School of Beijing Normal University, pointed out that AI Agents are innovative efficiency tools and represent the technological precursor to the further iterative evolution of current business models and even the commercial ecosystem. In terms of governance, comprehensive and in-depth insights and judgments from all parties are needed, especially balancing technological innovation and industrial interests.
AI Agents need to have a comprehensive understanding of user data and various APP services. Once the large models on the system side access all data, ensuring that user privacy is not leaked and system security is not compromised becomes a sword of Damocles hanging over all participants.
This game of authorization and overstepping is far from over.
<h2>The Battle for Entry Points</h2>
The reason Doubao Mobile Assistant has been pushed to the forefront, aside from privacy and security concerns, is more importantly that it is challenging the mobile internet industry pattern that has lasted for over a decade in an unprecedented manner. The core of this war is the competition for the &#34;super traffic entry point&#34; in the AI era
In the past few years, since Apple launched its smartphone, a super commercial ecosystem consisting of billions of phones and countless apps has formed. This ecosystem includes mobile hardware, operating systems, and super apps, as well as the underlying networks and telecommunications.
Based on some super apps and national-level applications, internet and technology giants have also emerged. WeChat, Douyin, Pinduoduo, and Xiaohongshu are among the Chinese leaders, while traditional e-commerce platforms like Taobao and JD.com, as well as food delivery sites like Meituan, have also developed into super apps.
The core of the super app business model is data and traffic. The monetization models generated from this, such as advertising, e-commerce, and payments, have now matured. A super app can easily achieve trillions in GMV, hundreds of billions in revenue, and tens of billions in profit.
Doubao attempts to become a &#34;traffic scheduling center&#34; as an AI assistant, bypassing traditional app entry points to directly invoke services. This move changes the existing app distribution and usage, impacting the business model of super apps.
For platforms like Taobao and Meituan, which rely on user engagement, ad exposure, and transaction commissions, the AI Agent's &#34;cross-application scheduling&#34; capability means that users can complete service consumption without opening the app, effectively pulling away the platform's traffic foundation.
The entry point is both a moat and a toll booth. Therefore, this new-old power struggle ignited by Doubao is essentially a counterattack from the lords of traffic &#34;enclaves&#34; in the mobile internet era against the emerging AI Agent forces attempting to &#34;seize the cash register.&#34;
Since the wave of AI large models was sparked by ChatGPT at the end of 2022, a consensus has emerged that AI Agents will bring unprecedented changes to the software and hardware industries.
Recently, Tesla CEO Elon Musk predicted a radical future: in the next 5-6 years, traditional phones and apps will disappear, and most of the content consumed by humans will be generated by AI.
While reshaping human-computer interaction, AI Agents will also change the role of app developers as data controllers in the past mobile internet ecosystem and rewrite the commercial ecology of mobile applications, giving rise to new business cooperation models after the &#34;Apple tax&#34; and &#34;Android tax.&#34;
Thus, the war initiated by Doubao is a battle between the established &#34;super app&#34; empire and the emerging &#34;AI agent&#34; model, fundamentally a contest for the future super traffic entry points.
ByteDance has its traffic anxiety, and its proactive offensive inevitably encounters the risk control barriers of super apps. This is not merely a countermeasure by WeChat or Taobao against Doubao, but a struggle between old and new models.
<h2>The Battle for the Future</h2>
Zhang Yiming is still the person who wants to dismantle the old world. More than a decade ago, he disrupted social media with Douyin, creating a national-level application parallel to WeChat; now, he wants to use Doubao Assistant to seize the super traffic entry point of the AI era.
Doubao has taken the initiative to launch an offensive, while WeChat, Taobao, and others seem to be passively defending. However, as the overlords of the mobile internet era, Tencent's Pony Ma, Alibaba's Jack Ma, and even Baidu's Robin Li are not willing to fall behind; they all have their own grand plans for AI Agents
Tencent's management revealed earlier this year that in the area of General AI Agents, Tencent is building this capability through AI-native products such as Yuanbao and IMA, and will also develop AI agents embedded in the WeChat ecosystem, operating based on WeChat's unique ecosystem.
Tencent President Liu Chiping pointed out at a recent earnings conference that WeChat will eventually launch an AI agent to help users complete many tasks within WeChat using AI. WeChat has five major ecosystems: communication, social networking, content (public accounts, video accounts), mini-programs, payments, and commerce, which enable the agent to understand users' needs, intentions, and interests, and also to execute tasks in a closed loop.
Alibaba has also proposed a strategic plan to build AI Agents. The Qianwen APP has become Alibaba's pioneer in seizing the next generation of super traffic entry points, and Alibaba's core management views the &#34;Qianwen&#34; project as &#34;the future battle of the AI era.&#34; In the future, Qianwen will successively integrate into Alibaba's business ecosystem scenarios such as e-commerce, maps, and local life.
In addition to major companies, smartphone manufacturers holding underlying operating system permissions are also a significant force attempting to take over smartphones with AI. AI assistants are key landing scenarios for smartphone manufacturers to create AI smartphones. Currently, smartphone manufacturers mainly focus on self-research, such as Huawei's Xiao Yi, Honor's YOYO, Xiaomi's Xiao Ai, and OPPO's Xiao Bu.
ByteDance's choice to collaborate with ZTE to develop AI smartphones is largely because ZTE does not have its own AI assistant. This is somewhat similar to Huawei's HarmonyOS, which initially could only find cooperation with Seres, as most major brand manufacturers are unwilling to hand over their &#34;soul&#34; to Huawei, and smartphone manufacturers are no exception.
In fact, besides ZTE, there is also the shadow of Smartisan behind ByteDance. Alibaba has also deeply cooperated with Apple and may even launch its own smartphone.
Moreover, in addition to smartphones, intelligent terminal hardware also includes glasses, in-car screens, humanoid robots, etc., all of which need to achieve a balance with AI assistants.
In the future, the cooperation between AI applications and hardware manufacturers will become increasingly deep and frequent, and there may even be cases where they create hardware themselves. For example, Alibaba recently launched Quark glasses; after all, without installed capacity and users, there is no basis for discussing AI assistants.
It can be imagined that in the foreseeable future, several major internet companies will have an AI Agent that can connect their ecosystems, and some smartphone manufacturers will create a more &#34;functional&#34; system-level AI Agent by reaching agreements with more small and medium-sized third-party apps.
A layered ecosystem may be inevitable: services with high data privacy and security importance, such as payments and social networking, will be firmly controlled by the platform; while low-sensitivity scenarios, such as photo editing and information queries, may be opened up for AI Agent scheduling.
The recent offensive by Doubao and the countermeasures from WeChat and Taobao mark that the development of AI smartphones has moved from a purely technical demonstration stage to a brutal &#34;ecological game stage.&#34; Doubao's temporary setback exposes the limitations of technological radicalism when facing large vested interest groups.
However, this collision is not a bad thing; it will accelerate the entire industry to rethink and reconstruct the future rules of human-computer interaction. In the era of terminal AI, traditional mobile internet privacy protection and data security order will inevitably be broken, and all parties must find new balance points in collaboration and competition
The once-dominant empire of smart terminals and super apps, along with its commercial ecosystem, will also be restructured.
Undoubtedly, the revolutionary significance of AI Agents has been established. It is irreversibly reshaping the future landscape of the software and hardware industry, and the interaction between humans and AI, as well as agents, has entered a new era.
The future has arrived. ByteDance and Doubao phones are merely the ones who first lifted the veil

Doubao Phone has stirred up a tremendous wave