Stop mindlessly pretending to be Doubao. After testing five domestic AI apps, the most powerful one turns out to be...

Do you have any AI apps installed on your phone? If so, how many?

According to QuestMobile data, in the first quarter of 2026, the average monthly user scale of AI native apps reached 413 million, a year-on-year increase of 84.1%.

AI apps are becoming new "entry points". Some people use them as search engines, some as photo - editing software, and some use them to write articles, make PPTs, order takeaways. They are even starting to replace some apps.

The competition among different AI apps is no longer just about "who is smarter". Even if they are all all - around, different development paths have begun to emerge.

We selected five domestic AI apps with the highest popularity: Doubao, Yuanbao, Kimi, Qianwen, and DeepSeek, and identified the top 1 - 2 performers in different mobile phone usage scenarios.

If you only want to keep 1 - 2 AI apps, reading this article should be sufficient.

At the same time, ifanr would like to remind you that although AI is powerful, it is not omnipotent and not always correct. During the experience of these 5 AIs, each will have different degrees of hallucinations. It is not recommended to fully trust or easily believe in AI.

It should be noted that as of the time of publication, Qianwen has launched a new 3.7 model. The version used in this test was Qianwen 3.5.

Daily Q&A

In the past, when we had questions, we would say "Search on Baidu, and you'll know." Now, it has become "If you have a question, ask Doubao."

For most people, the high - frequency scenario of using AI is to obtain "knowledge". Whether it's a difficult problem in life, an accidental question, or the need for data and knowledge to support an online argument, we will let AI answer for us.

Kimi: The Strongest Domestic AI Search Engine

If you want to use an AI app as a search engine, Kimi is the most recommended one.

When answering questions, Kimi doesn't present all the knowledge to users at once. In the fast mode, it concisely presents the most important explanations and provides appropriate extensions, keeping the page uncluttered.

Recently, the WHOOP bracelet has become very popular. I simply asked the AI about it. Kimi's answer, although brief, is refined and relatively comprehensive, allowing users to understand the product and its features in the shortest time.

A more challenging scenario is to retrieve and summarize data and reports. I asked the AI to find a report on AI usage by Chinese users in Q1 2026. Kimi cited up to 5 survey reports, which is more comprehensive than its competitors. Each piece of data is marked with its source and presented in a tabular form.

Kimi has a rather fatal shortcoming - it often experiences insufficient computing power and cannot answer questions, and its response speed is also slower than other products. If you need quick answers in daily scenarios, you may worry that Kimi will fail.

If you want to search for "guide" - type content, Kimi's approach is relatively comprehensive, but the answers may not always be correct. Compared with information retrieval, Kimi seems a bit inadequate in teaching.

Ifanr would like to remind you that all five AIs have different degrees of hallucinations when retrieving different tutorials. Sometimes, the correct answers are ranked after the wrong ones, and in severe cases, they may provide completely wrong steps.

It is recommended to obtain tutorials related to personal safety, such as cooking tutorials, from "human - based platforms" like Xiachufang and Xiaohongshu.

Doubao: Winning with Stability

If you want an AI that can respond at any time, overall, I recommend Doubao - not because it is the smartest, but because Qianwen and Yuanbao have obvious shortcomings.

The interface of Qianwen's application is not user - friendly. The text layout is dense, and the generated answers are relatively redundant, making it difficult to quickly extract useful information.

The quality of Yuanbao's answers fluctuates significantly. For simple daily questions like "Why is there a pink elephant effect?" and "Why do dried seafood taste more fragrant?", it uses a lot of technical terms and gives very brief answers, which can be confusing. However, when asked to list the "evolution history of iPhone Pro's imaging", it presents a well - formatted answer with both text and pictures. Except for one mis - placed picture and the omission of iPhone 17 Pro, the information is basically accurate.

Doubao performs relatively stably. Its answers are rich in information, well - structured, and explain complex concepts in a simple way, which is sufficient for answering daily questions.

Copywriting

One of the earliest popular scenarios for AI apps is "help me write something".

From WeChat Moments copywriting, Xiaohongshu titles, to work reports, email polishing, and even video scripts and WeChat official account introductions, more and more people are used to throwing a general idea to AI and asking it to "get started".

It is a basic skill for AI to "be able to write", but the challenge lies in writing like a "human", minimizing the obvious AI flavor, not using templates or piling up words.

DeepSeek: Still with Internet Sense

Remember? A year ago, DeepSeek made a splash by writing excellent copywriting.

In the deep - thinking and expert modes, DeepSeek's writing skills are still among the best. Here is the opening paragraph of this article written by DeepSeek. It not only has catchphrases but also has a writing style similar to ifanr:

How many AI apps are there on your phone now? Remember when DeepSeek went viral overnight during the Spring Festival the year before last, and by this Spring Festival, various companies were competing to give out red envelopes to attract new users. The installation rate of AI apps has almost become a standard. The icons of Doubao, Qianwen, Kimi, Yuanbao, and DeepSeek fill the desktop, and the choice anxiety is also growing. Facing the numerous domestic AI apps, which one is better and which scenarios are they suitable for? The most well - known one may not be the most user - friendly, and the one that once topped the charts may not always be the best. So we gathered these five domestic AIs together for a thorough comparison to help you find the one that really suits you.

However, DeepSeek also has obvious problems. It took 6 minutes to complete these 180 words in the deep - thinking and expert modes, and it failed to segment the text according to the prompt words.

I directly pasted a latest Bloomberg report on Apple's AI to the AI and asked them to produce a news flash of about 500 words. DeepSeek's output still has its own "style": slightly over - used words and sentences full of internet sense.

Yuanbao: Best at Understanding the Reader's Perspective

Yuanbao's advantage lies in its "down - to - earth" writing style and its ability to quickly arouse people's emotions. In media jargon, it has a strong reader's perspective.

For example, the opening of the article written by Yuanbao directly points out the core problem of "choice anxiety" and emphasizes that the article does not rely on popularity or rankings but focuses on the real experience of AI apps:

How many AI apps are there in your phone? Riding on the wave set off by DeepSeek the year before last and the red - envelope campaigns by major tech giants during this Spring Festival, AI apps have completely occupied our phones. The installation rate has skyrocketed, but many people are confused when facing a screen full of domestic AIs: Which one is the best? And in which scenarios should we use which one? The well - known ones may not be the most convenient, and the once - popular ones may have become "outdated". To help everyone end this "choice anxiety", we directly selected the five most popular domestic AIs - Doubao, Qianwen, Kimi, Yuanbao, and DeepSeek - and conducted a comprehensive and honest comparison from daily conversations to professional work. Don't blindly follow the download lists anymore. This most practical review on the whole network will help you accurately find your "fated AI".

For the same news flash about Apple's AI, I prefer Yuanbao's insight into Apple's AI "combination of internal and external" compared to DeepSeek:

Document Summarization

It's no exaggeration to say that since the rise of generative AI, I hardly read work documents from beginning to end by myself. I always let AI summarize the key points for me and then read the original documents as needed.

On mobile devices with smaller screens and less convenient document browsing, having AI summarize document points is a common use case.

DeepSeek: Clear at a Glance

Originally, I thought DeepSeek's main battlefields were in Q&A, search, and text generation. Unexpectedly, it is also very efficient in document processing and is the best among domestic AIs.

I gave DeepSeek my 6500 - word "2026 TV Purchase Guide". It summarized the basic information well, although there may be some deviations in details due to the writing style of the article.