Douyin is about to launch AI applications, with major tech giants scrambling to seize the next-generation distribution entry point.

In 2026, Vibe Coding tools have long moved from concept to widespread adoption, yet the vast majority of AI applications end up trapped in closed traffic loops. Ordinary developers who build an application can mostly only spread it within small niche circles, making it extremely difficult to reach a broader mass user base. Distribution has always been a structural challenge standing in the way of the AI application track.

This situation is being disrupted simultaneously by several content platforms. Douyin is conducting internal tests on its "AI Workshop", where the AI applications produced will directly enter the home page recommendation stream and be pushed to hundreds of millions of users by algorithms; Xiaohongshu allows AI tools to be mounted under notes, so users can use them conveniently while browsing notes; Tencent's Tusi has opened up the compliance chain from application generation to listing on Yingyongbao.

Douyin, Tencent and Xiaohongshu have made their moves one after another, with different paths but pointing to the same core: opening up the public domain traffic exit for AI applications. At the same time, Doubao and Workbuddy are also competing to become new types of app stores, packaging third-party tools into capability modules that can be called on demand.

Whoever controls more user scenarios and attention entrances will seize the initiative of next-generation application distribution. This is no longer an industry judgment that only stays on paper, but the core layout logic that major platforms are advancing.

AI Applications Embedded in Information Feeds, Douyin Accelerates Layout of Interactive Content

A brand new content form is about to emerge in the information feed on Douyin's home page: directly interactive AI application cards.

Recent internal test information shows that Douyin is launching the "AI Workshop" tool on a small scale in the creator center, and the supporting "Interest Card" produced has entered the gray test of the home page recommendation stream.

Different from the content forms such as short videos and images and texts that users are already familiar with, the Interest Card is an interactive AI content carrier distributed based on personalized recommendations: users can directly access it when scrolling the information feed, and complete operations such as Q&A queries, fun tests, information generation, and light-weight interactions within the card. No mini-program redirection is required throughout the process, and there is no need to leave the main Douyin App.

The AI Workshop currently adopts an invitation-only internal test system, with the product slogan "Turn good ideas into fun ways to play". The core idea of the product can be seen from the interface layout: the left side is the skill library, resource library and project library, the middle is the natural language dialogue creation area, and the right side is the real-time preview and release area.

The design premise of the whole process is to allow creators who know nothing about code to participate, describe their ideas in spoken language, and the platform assists in completing the construction, finally generating a fully interactive interest card with a complete interface. Some creators who have participated in the internal test have shown their works, whose interface completion degree far exceeds the general public's expectation for no-code generation tools.

For developers with technical capabilities, the AI Workshop also reserves space. The underlying files can be directly modified for in-depth customization, and debugging, real machine preview, and online release are all completed in the same environment, no need to switch back and forth across platforms.

More critically, it is specially adapted to Douyin's feed stream, and can be directly presented in the recommendation stream in the form of a card, which mini-programs cannot achieve. To give a cold start to this system, Douyin provides a cash reward of 100 yuan for each approved Interest Card work during the internal test period, and many creators have begun to share their works for trial.

This is not ByteDance's first layout of interactive content, but a progressive result that has been verified step by step.

In the middle of 2026, Douyin launched the independent square "Interactive Space", where creators can generate interactive works and upload them for display through natural language with the help of Trae, ByteDance's AI programming tool. But at that time, the interactive space was still a secondary entrance in the sidebar, requiring users to actively enter to find content. The real breakthrough of the AI Workshop paired with Interest Cards is precisely here: placing interactive content directly into the home page recommendation stream, changing from "people looking for content" to "content finding people".

Behind this step of layout, there are two layers of realistic logic working together. On the one hand, there is the stock pressure of the short video industry whose growth has peaked. At present, the number of short video users across the network has reached 1.074 billion, with a usage rate of 95.4%. The industry's incremental space is narrowing, and platforms need new content forms that can boost user duration and stickiness. The participation and stay duration of interactive content are naturally higher than one-way videos.

On the other hand, it is also a precise breakthrough of the long-term pain points of the AI application track. Vibe Coding tools on the market are emerging one after another, and ordinary people can quickly make AI applications, but there has long been a lack of public domain traffic exits.

The essence of Douyin's AI Workshop is to directly open up hundreds of millions of recommendation traffic to AI application creators, and open up the complete closed loop from creation to distribution. Choosing to embed it in the main site instead of making it an independent App also has deeper considerations: short videos drive the spread of interactive applications, and the wonderful clips of interactive applications can be edited into short videos for secondary diffusion, forming a positive cycle of mutual diversion between the two content forms in the ecosystem.

Tencent Opens Up AI Application Listing Chain, Xiaohongshu and Bilibili Integrate Content Grass-planting

Almost in the same time window as Douyin, Tencent, Xiaohongshu and Bilibili are also intensively promoting AI application layouts, with significantly different paths for each family. Behind the choices is the natural extension of different platform genes in distribution logic and ecological advantages.

Tencent has adopted a typical dual-track strategy. Inside the WeChat ecosystem, the native AI assistant "Xiaowei" launched a small-scale gray test in June, where the ability to generate small tools with one sentence is the biggest highlight. With just one sentence, users can generate a lightweight mini-program tool. The generated tool is completely enclosed in the WeChat ecosystem, limited to personal use only, does not support forwarding and sharing, and does not open high-permission calls such as payment and address book.

Outside the WeChat ecosystem, Tusi takes another completely independent route. Tencent launched the Android version of Tusi in May, positioned as an "application generation and inspiration co-creation platform". Users only need to describe their ideas in natural language, and AI can automatically disassemble functions, generate prototypes, and finally package them into an App with one click to install on the mobile phone.

On August 19, Tusi officially launched the paid "one-stop listing" feature. After users generate applications, they can complete the processes of software copyright application, App filing, compliance document generation, etc. within the platform, submit the listing application with one click, and the application can be launched and distributed on Yingyongbao after passing the review. This is also the first compliance chain in China that opens up the whole process of AI applications from generation to official listing.

The vast majority of Vibe Coding tools on the market only stay at the level of solving "how to make an application". Tusi has taken one step further, focusing on solving the problem of "how to let users see it", filling the key gap that the entire track has previously avoided.

Xiaohongshu's idea is to do in-depth integration within its own ecosystem. At WAIC 2026, Xiaohongshu announced the full launch of RED Skill, internal testing of Vibe Coding small tools, and upgraded the Builder Hub creator platform. Developers can mount AI applications under notes, so users can use them directly without redirection.

From the operation data of more than one month of internal testing, more than 7300 original Skills have emerged on the site, covering multiple fields such as efficiency-improving tools, workplace counseling, and emotional companionship. The Vibe Coding ecosystem is also growing rapidly on Xiaohongshu. Since February this year, the platform has added 40,000 to 50,000 related works every month, covering fields from art design, hand-painting to music, maternity and baby, and movies, almost penetrating all interest circles.

Xiaohongshu has elevated AI to the strategic height of the first-level department Dots, whose core purpose is to strengthen the service attribute of content: when users view outfits notes, they can directly use the mounted budget tool to match individual items; when viewing travel guides, they can export the itinerary list with one click. AI tools naturally appear in scenarios where users need solutions, perfectly fitting Xiaohongshu's community path of "grass-planting - decision making".

Since June, Bilibili has launched a small-scale internal test of the web content publishing platform "Toy", which supports publishing local creative web pages with one click as interactive works that can be directly accessed and played on the site. Whether UP masters develop independently or quickly generate with the help of AI Agent, Vibe Coding and other tools, they can precipitate their creativity on the site.

After more than one month of internal testing, more than 300 works have been uploaded to the platform by UP masters, covering multiple categories such as games, interactive narratives, tools, tests, reports, and picture albums. The total user experience volume on the platform has exceeded 8.5 million times. The content of Toy is not limited to games, and practical tools such as comic exhibition tour guide planning tools and file format converters are also active in it.

Bilibili's idea is similar to that of Xiaohongshu: both use the original content ecosystem to divert traffic for interactive works. UP masters post videos to introduce the works, and then jump through the video link to enter the experience, forming a closed loop of "content grass-planting - tool experience".

The root of the path differentiation of the four platforms lies in different platform endowments: Douyin relies on algorithm recommendations to follow a centralized content distribution route; Tencent extends tools within WeChat and opens up the listing chain outside the ecosystem, with the two lines not interfering with each other; both Xiaohongshu and Bilibili use content communities for integration, with the former taking note mounting as the core and the latter taking video diversion as the core. It is hard to say which path is better, in essence, they are all choices made by platforms based on their own resources.

From Doubao Connector to Buddy Applications, AI Office Platforms Compete to Become New App Stores

According to Nomura Securities' July data on internet user duration, Douyin surpassed WeChat's 18.8% duration share for the first time with 19.4%, becoming the single application with the longest usage time for Chinese users. The five apps of the ByteDance system together account for 40.9% of the duration share of the Top 50 apps, far exceeding Tencent's 29.1%.

When the main arena of user attention completely shifts to content information feeds, the impact of embedding AI applications into information feeds is not just adding one more content form, but is touching the underlying logic of application distribution. The cost for users to acquire and use tools has dropped to almost the same level as scrolling a video or reading a note. For a large number of lightweight, scenario-based, one-time AI applications, the reach efficiency of information feeds is significantly better than that of traditional app stores.

At the same time that C-end lightweight tools are being diverted by content platforms, AI platforms are becoming new application aggregation entrances.

Doubao launched the "Skill・Connector" system in August, and more than 200 skills and third-party connectors have been listed so far. From mainstream office systems such as Feishu, WeCom, and DingTalk, to data information tools such as Tonghuashun, Tianyancha, and Qichacha, to exclusive skills for various vertical scenarios, all can be connected to Doubao's workflow through connectors.

From a morphological point of view, this system already has the core features of an app store - aggregating third-party capabilities, unified entrance distribution, and on-demand invocation, except that what is distributed is no longer installation packages, but directly executable capability modules.

In early September, Tencent WorkBuddy officially opened its ecological platform, with hundreds of Buddy applications connected in the first batch. The left application bar includes not only professional enterprise-oriented tools such as Tongdaxin and Tencent e-Sign, but also all-around design tools for ordinary users such as Meitu. Users do not need to download and install corresponding software separately, and can directly call the corresponding capabilities after completing authorization in WorkBuddy, completing tasks in the same workbench throughout the whole process.

Traditional app stores follow the logic of "download first, then use", requiring users to actively search, install, and register; while AI office platforms follow the logic of "have