ByteDance, ZTE integrate prototype phone featuring Doubao AI agent
- ByStartupStory | December 1, 2025
ByteDance and ZTE have jointly unveiled a prototype smartphone featuring ByteDance’s AI voice assistant called Doubao Mobile Assistant. This AI agent, powered by ByteDance’s large language model, will make its debut on ZTE’s Nubia M153 handset, a prototype priced around 3,499 yuan (approximately $495 USD). Available for limited pre-order, the Nubia M153 boasts a 6.78-inch display, a triple-camera system with a 50-megapixel main sensor, and is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processor.
Doubao Mobile Assistant enables users to complete tasks via voice commands such as searching for content, making restaurant reservations, booking tickets, removing pedestrians from images, and facilitating online purchases with user approval. The AI assistant represents a deep integration at the operating system level between ByteDance’s AI capabilities and ZTE’s handset control layers, aiming to deliver a richer user interaction experience.
ByteDance clarified that it does not plan to manufacture its own phones but is in talks with multiple smartphone manufacturers to expand the AI assistant’s availability. This move follows ByteDance’s previous hardware ventures with products like open-ear wearables in collaboration with Oladance. Doubao has amassed over 159 million monthly active users in China, surpassing competitors like Tencent’s Yuanbao and DeepSeek’s AI platforms.
The collaboration signifies ByteDance’s strategic push into embedding advanced AI conversational agents into smartphones, intensifying competition with other Chinese smartphone makers such as Huawei, Xiaomi, and the potential rollout of Apple’s AI features in China. To refine the user experience, the companies have committed to frequent biweekly software updates through March 2026 to enhance features and address feedback.
This prototype and AI integration herald a new era of agentic AI control on mobile devices, where intelligent, context-aware voice assistants serve as seamless interfaces between users and their phones, potentially redefining human-machine interaction on the go.
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