Doubao Mobile encounters obstacles in its initial battle, and AI fails to break through the barriers of the Internet ecosystem.

On the third day of its release, the so - called "Doubao AI Phone" encountered its first bug.

On the morning of December 3rd, in the user group of the collaborative model "Nubia M153" between Doubao and Nubia, users continuously reported that after performing daily operations such as sending WeChat messages and red envelopes using the Doubao Phone Assistant, WeChat would unexpectedly quit and could not be logged in again.

This was the brake that was hit after the "Doubao Phone" had been on a two - day high - speed run.

Abnormal WeChat login on Nubia M153, Image source/Internet

On December 1st, the technical preview version of the Doubao Phone Assistant was officially launched. The official stated that it was a collaborative effort with ZTE and was released on the Nubia M153 model - this was also the first model that was deeply customized through the cooperation between a third - party large - language model and a mobile phone. Its selling point was the full automation of daily app operations. The model was priced at 3,499 yuan. After its release, it quickly sold out and sparked discussions. There was also a trend of reselling it at a markup in the second - hand market, with some resale prices reaching 5,000 yuan.

However, on December 3rd, within just a few hours, the "Doubao Phone" was blocked by various apps.

By the evening of December 3rd, not only WeChat, but also users reported that other apps such as Alipay showed a prompt of "abnormal login environment" and they were unable to log in or complete payment.

Behind the popular "Doubao AI Phone Assistant" is a new paradigm of software - hardware collaboration through the underlying cooperation between a third - party large - language model manufacturer and a mobile phone brand. However, this new species of a large - language model on a mobile phone is facing the old problems of the traditional Internet ecosystem.

01

The "Large - Language Model Phone" Frequently Hits WeChat's Risk - Control Wall

After a quick investigation on the same day, the development team of the Doubao Phone Assistant proposed a solution of switching back to the pure "manual mode".

The staff replied in the Feishu group set up for Nubia M153 users:

"The ability to operate WeChat in the phone - operating/phone - operating pro mode of the Doubao Phone Assistant has been taken offline; the WeChat accounts that were blocked from logging in on the Nubia M153 will be unblocked one by one. Please wait for some time and try to log in again."

According to "Power Plant", the Doubao Phone Assistant was unable to trigger WeChat - related operations because it had triggered WeChat's risk - control measures. On the evening of December 3rd, the Doubao Phone Assistant issued a statement, only stating that there was no hacking behavior during its autonomous operation of WeChat.

In fact, the problems encountered by the "Doubao Phone Assistant" are not new.

Since 2024, integrating large - language models into mobile phones has become an area of focus in the AI and smartphone industries. In theory, by obtaining system - level permissions, an Agent can take over some of the user's operations, achieving the effect of using the phone "hands - free".

For example, in October 2024, at the launch event of the new Honor Magic 8, then - CEO Zhao Ming demonstrated the functions of making a WeChat call and ordering coffee on a food - delivery app using the YOYO intelligent agent.

In November of the same year, the large - language model manufacturer Zhipu AI held an open - day event, showcasing the updated capabilities of the Agent "AutoGLM (Contemplation)". Its main feature was "compatibility with eight major apps such as WeChat and Taobao". To demonstrate its capabilities, at the press conference, Zhang Peng, the founder and CEO of Zhipu, directly used AutoGLM to send 100 WeChat red envelopes.

After that, the demonstration of the Agent's autonomous operation function has almost become a regular part of every mobile phone manufacturer's press conference.

However, WeChat has been quite cautious and restrictive regarding third - party AI services taking over operations. This has also led to the fact that the functional concepts of each manufacturer's Agent directly operating users' WeChat accounts have either stopped at the press - conference demonstrations or are no longer supported after being launched for some time.

For example, in March this year, some users found that the Honor phone's intelligent agent could no longer directly make a WeChat voice call or send text messages. In the explanation provided by Honor's customer service, the reason was clearly attributed to WeChat: "Since the third - party app does not support assisted execution, please manually operate the relevant app functions."

After that, mobile - phone intelligent agents such as Huawei's "Xiao Yi", Xiaomi's "Xiao Ai", vivo's "Xiao V", and Meizu's "Aicy" gradually abandoned the function of using AI to operate WeChat.

vivo's mobile - phone intelligent assistant "Lanxin Xiao V" stopped the operation of sending WeChat messages on behalf of users, Image source/Internet

Regarding these phenomena, the digital blogger "Buluoka", who works for a mobile - phone brand, posted on Weibo in August, explaining: "WeChat has restricted this access. All mobile phones from different manufacturers can no longer use the simulated - operation function on WeChat."

"Power Plant" asked Tencent's relevant staff about the reasons for restricting large - language models from taking over users' operations, but as of now, there has been no response.

However, RPA - simulated operations without human services have always been listed as a key - monitored "cheating" violation by WeChat.

Specifically, the intelligent assistant mainly executes app operations by recognizing the graphical user interface and gradually simulating the user's operations on relevant function buttons. This process is called "large - language model recognition + RPA (Robotic Process Automation)".

Clause 8.2 of the "Tencent WeChat Software License and Service Agreement" specifically states that users shall not log in to or use WeChat and its services through third - party software, plugins, cheats, or systems that are not developed or authorized by Tencent, nor shall they perform automated operations, or create, publish, or spread such tools or methods.

Considering the content of the agreement, perhaps only the automated - operation tools supported by WeChat officially can be unrestricted.

However, among the AI services integrated into the current WeChat ecosystem, neither Tencent's self - developed "Yuanbao" nor the externally connected DeepSeek provides relevant automated - operation capabilities. Instead, they are limited to providing services in search, conversation, and document - understanding scenarios.

02

The "Doubao Phone" Challenges the Logic of the Traditional Mobile Ecosystem

For traditional Internet services, the entry of a system - level mobile - phone assistant not only involves issues such as user privacy and security but also prompts a re - discussion of the usage boundaries of large - language models and the changing ecological positions of mobile - phone systems and app developers.

From this perspective, the situation of Doubao exposes the logical conflict between the application of large - language models and the traditional Internet - app ecosystem.

On the one hand, the new user habit of "AI taking over human tasks" has, to some extent, disrupted the original attention - economy model of the Internet.

For example, on the evening of the 3rd, some users reported that they had the Doubao Phone Assistant play a game of "Honor of Kings" on their behalf, and the task ran successfully throughout. However, after the game, the user was judged to have used cheats and was banned from the game for 10 minutes. Some people also used the Doubao Phone Assistant to swipe videos on Pinduoduo to earn "gold coins", which led to their Pinduoduo accounts being unable to log in on the Nubia M153.

A user was banned from "Honor of Kings" for 10 minutes after using the Doubao Phone Assistant to play on their behalf, Image source/Internet

Even ByteDance's own original Internet - product ecosystem will be changed by the new "play styles" brought by the Doubao Phone Assistant:

"Power Plant" noticed that some users commanded the Doubao Phone Assistant to swipe the "Douyin Speed" app for 20 minutes on their behalf, enabling them to obtain traffic incentives from Douyin Speed without spending their own time.

On the other hand, for application - usage scenarios such as financial payments where security is the top priority, the addition of AI also brings uncertainties.

Several other users reported problems when logging in to Alipay using the "Doubao Phone". For example, when some people used the Doubao Phone Assistant to open a shopping platform and complete a purchase, when it came to manually entering the payment password, Alipay judged that there was a security risk in the payment environment and stopped the task midway; some people found that the system prompted an abnormal login environment when they just got their new phones and wanted to manually log in to platforms such as Alipay and Taobao; some also found that they were unable to open Ele.me to pay for a food - delivery order...

A Nubia M153 user's request to log in to Alipay was rejected, Image source/Internet

In addition, the Nubia M153's approach of having no ads and no pre - installed apps on the whole device has also touched the existing profit - model of the mobile - phone market. The rule that has been established in the smartphone market over the decades is "not making money from hardware but earning profits from software". Take Apple as an example. The gross - profit margin of its service business is as high as over 70%, while that of its hardware business is between 30% and 40%.

The Doubao Phone has lifted a corner of the curtain on the future of large - language - model mobile phones. However, the login restrictions of apps such as WeChat, Alipay, and Pinduoduo have made many users worry that the autonomous shopping and ordering operations demonstrated by the Doubao Phone Assistant may become a "swan song" after just two days.

In the Feishu group established for users and potential users, there are still many potential users queuing up for the "F - code" that represents the qualification to purchase the phone. On the other hand, users who have already bought the phone are repeatedly asking how to solve the problem of restricted app operations:

"Has the payment function been completely removed?" "Can the functions be restored?" "Can the negotiation between big companies not affect ordinary consumers?" "Is it a bit too much that I can't even order takeout?"

Regarding these questions, the official staff guided users to upload screenshots of their operation pages for problem feedback but did not give a clear answer.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Power Plant". Author: Dong Wenshu, Editor: Gao Yulei. Republished by 36Kr with permission.