Nubia will launch the world's first AI agent smartphone, scheduled for July 17 at WAIC 2026, featuring an orange AI button and a blue body design. Ni Fei, General Manager of ZTE’s Terminal Business Unit, confirmed this will be a mass-produced flagship device. The Obric UI system on the Doudou Phone has been iterated to v2.3.0.0 within 216 days, significantly enhancing its AI capabilities—the memory system now proactively identifies and incorporates user-favorite content, substantially improving operational success rates, while introducing continuous conversation functionality. Fundamental features such as dark mode and 15 TB of free cloud storage continue to be refined. However, mainstream apps like WeChat, Alipay, and DingTalk still impose limitations on AI operations, making ecosystem development the greatest challenge. The second-generation Doudou Phone is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Ultra chip.Article author and source: Zhixidong
The second-generation "Doubao Phone" is getting closer.
Yesterday, China’s well-known consumer electronics blogger “Digital Chat Station” revealed on Weibo that nubia has developed the world’s first AI agent smartphone, featuring an orange AI button, a blue body, and the “nubia” logo on the back.
In the comments section, "Digital Chat Station" also revealed that this phone features a custom AI system with a "glass-like UI." Our unit of the first-generation "Doubao Phone," jointly developed by ByteDance and Nubia, has also adopted a glass-style UI design following a recent system update.
Yesterday morning, ZTE officially announced the release date for this smartphone. It will make its debut at the WAIC 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, which opens on July 17 this year. Regarding the design, ZTE explained that they believe the color of an agent’s thinking is “probably blue.”
Ni Fei, Senior Vice President of ZTE Corporation, General Manager of ZTE's Terminal Business Unit, and President of nubia, posted on Weibo two days ago that this will be a mass-produced flagship device.
Coincidentally, the large model company Jieyue Xingchen also announced yesterday that it will launch the world’s first AI agent smartphone during WAIC, further fueling industry anticipation for this new form and new possibilities of AI agent smartphones.
Although the official details have not yet been released, industry rumors suggest that the second-generation "Doubao Phone" is expected to feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor, with the display supplier potentially switching from Tianma to BOE, and the battery system likely to adopt Desay’s battery management solution paired with cells provided by ATL.
More noteworthy details lie at the system level: over the past few months, the soul of DouBao Phone—the Obric UI operating system—has been continuously evolving along two main pillars: on one hand, the interactive experience and task execution capabilities of the system-level AI assistant, DouBao Phone Assistant, have been steadily enhanced; on the other hand, the functionality and user experience of the operating system itself and its built-in apps have gradually improved.
In terms of ecosystem compatibility, our testing shows that DouBao Mobile Assistant is now compatible with major apps such as DiDi, JD.com, and WeCom for Enterprise. Its AI operation permissions are granularly controlled at the feature level—most apps support non-sensitive operations, but restrictions remain in place for scenarios involving payments, transactions, and account security.
As a user of the first-generation "Doubao Phone," I have used this device almost daily since December last year, experiencing over ten system updates across 216 days, making me particularly aware of these changes. I can sense that the Doubao Phone is gradually moving beyond its early "technology preview" status and becoming increasingly like a mature product designed for the mainstream market.
If we connect these scattered pieces of information, a clearer picture of the second-generation "DouBao Phone" is emerging.
Behind the 216-day iteration, the Agent capabilities of the DouBao Phone have been upgraded to a new generation. Compared to the current lack of concrete hardware specifications, there are already several public clues regarding the AI capabilities and operating system of the second-generation DouBao Phone.
Since the release of the first-generation "Doubao Phone" in December last year, updates to Obric UI, primarily managed by ByteDance, have maintained a high iteration frequency. From the end of last year through the first quarter of this year, the system consistently released updates approximately every two weeks. After entering 2026, although the update pace slowed slightly, it has continued with monthly version iterations. On May 28 of this year, Obric UI officially launched its first version of the 2.0 era and has since been updated to v2.3.0.0.
After multiple updates, the AI capabilities of Doudou Mobile Assistant in Obric UI have been comprehensively enhanced, with the two most significant improvements being memory and mobile operation abilities.
First is memory capability. Compared to when the product was first launched, DouBao Mobile Assistant now proactively and accurately retains user information.
In the past, actions such as saving or bookmarking while browsing the web or using apps did not necessarily get automatically stored in long-term memory, and the effectiveness of organizing these memories was often poor; today, saved content on apps like Xiaohongshu, Dianping, and Amap is mostly automatically recognized and integrated into the global memory system of "DouBao Phone," forming a personal information repository that can be accessed over the long term.
▲ DouBao Mobile Assistant's auto-memory feature has been triggered
Meanwhile, the Doubao mobile assistant has significantly improved its ability to recall information. In daily use, after I ask it to remember my home address, it can automatically retrieve that memory whenever I use natural phrases like “go home,” “at home,” or “in the neighborhood,” without needing to ask again.
More practically, when necessary information is missing from the conversation, it can proactively retrieve system data within the user’s authorized scope to fill in the gaps. For example, in scenarios such as entering a shipping address or verifying a phone number, it typically completes the data retrieval directly rather than pausing to wait for the user to re-enter the information.
The improved memory capability has made DouBao Mobile Assistant much more convenient—I no longer need to repeatedly remind it of trivial information I’ve already shared.
In terms of mobile operation capabilities, the overall success rate of DouBao Mobile Assistant in tasks such as opening apps, modifying system settings, and completing cross-app operations has significantly improved compared to earlier versions. It has also addressed a major usability issue from its initial release—lack of feedback during execution.
When using the old version of DouBao to operate mobile functions, I often felt lost, unsure of what DouBao was actually doing on my phone or how far along the process was.
▲ Previous version of DouBao mobile interface
The new system has been completely redesigned to overhaul the task execution interface. During phone operations, the AI will display the current step, thought process, and task progress in real time, accompanied by visual animations to keep users informed of the task status at all times.
When needing to confirm information with me, DouBao Mobile Assistant also offers options beyond voice and typing. It can now directly send me tabs that I can select with a single tap, making the experience more natural.
Meanwhile, the overall user experience of DouBao Mobile Assistant continues to improve. For me personally, the most noticeable change is the increased success rate of voice wake-up. Now, in scenarios such as playing music, DouBao Mobile Assistant responds more reliably to wake-up commands—previously, its wake-up performance would significantly degrade when connected to headphones.
This may be related to the "Accessory-enhanced Voiceprint" feature in DouBao Mobile Assistant. After connecting audio input devices such as headphones, speakers, and car entertainment systems, I can choose to re-record my voiceprint on these devices, allowing DouBao to adapt to the unique audio pickup characteristics of each device.
In terms of voice interaction, DouBao Mobile Assistant has launched a beta version of continuous conversation capability. Once enabled, users can engage in ongoing conversations with DouBao without repeatedly saying the wake word “DouBao, DouBao,” offering an experience similar to the voice call feature in the DouBao app. This new feature enhances the fluency of interactions with DouBao Mobile, allowing users to more naturally discuss complex topics or interrupt at any time to introduce new subjects.
Overall, since its release, Obric UI has not introduced any groundbreaking AI capabilities, but has instead focused on numerous incremental improvements around everyday high-frequency experiences such as memory, execution, feedback, and voice. Individually, these upgrades may seem minor, but collectively, they have significantly enhanced the stability, usability, and fluidity of the DouBao mobile assistant’s AI features.
If the second-generation "DouBao Phone" is indeed set to be released, the optimizations completed by Obric UI over the past several months are likely laying the groundwork for the software experience of the new device, enabling system-level agents to better meet the frequent, long-term, and stable usage needs of everyday users.
02. The operating system sheds its "tech preview" feel, with essential capabilities of a mature system being added beyond AI functionality. Another notable update focus for Obric UI is the operating system itself and its system applications.
When the first-generation "Doubao Phone" was released, it was positioned as an experimental product designed for AI, so several functions that are already well-established in traditional smartphone systems still had room for improvement in the Doubao Phone.
Over the past several months, Obric UI has continuously enhanced its functionality across multiple modules, including cameras, desktop interfaces, system tools, and security capabilities. While these improvements may not attract as much attention as AI upgrades, they are crucial in determining whether Obric UI can truly become a mature mobile operating system for mainstream consumers.
The camera app is one of the most significantly upgraded system applications on the Doudou Phone. When the first-generation Doudou Phone was first released, its camera features were relatively basic, lacking common functionalities such as Live Photos and macro mode, and there was considerable room for improvement in its imaging algorithms.
After entering the 2.0 era, the camera gradually added basic features such as Live Photos, macro shooting, and filters, while also optimizing user experience in areas like capture success rate, smooth focus switching, and shooting stability. In the DouBao phone user community, one user remarked that the camera has finally become "usable."
In addition to the camera, Obric UI has launched several system features that users have widely requested.
The most representative of these is dark mode. As a standard feature in virtually all major mobile operating systems today, this functionality was continuously refined across previous versions of Obric UI, with most users only gaining access by the Obric UI 2.0 release.
Meanwhile, the system has redesigned the desktop icons for the Top 500 apps to create a more consistent visual style across applications, further enhancing the overall user experience; the Phone app now displays the location and carrier information of incoming numbers; and System Settings has added new features such as scheduled power on/off.
These changes mean that the Obric UI is now addressing some of the foundational user experience gaps that were previously left unresolved.
Beyond its system capabilities, the "Doubao Phone" has now strengthened its cloud service offerings. After the system update, the Doubao Phone provided me with a free cloud storage space of up to 15TB—far exceeding the free cloud capacity offered by mainstream smartphone manufacturers to regular users. On the Doubao Cloud subscription page, the price for 2TB of storage is as high as 68 yuan per month.
For AI-powered phones, greater cloud storage capacity not only means being able to save more photos and files, but also enables the long-term accumulation of user-related data—such as meeting recordings and transcripts, long-term memories, saved content, and documents. The continuous storage and accumulation of this information help the AI better understand the user.
Whether the larger cloud storage space of "Doubao Phone" will become one of the key infrastructures for AI phones is worth ongoing observation.
In terms of privacy and security, the Obric UI has also undergone several optimizations.
After the upgrade, the system has added password verification and other security measures for sensitive data such as voiceprints and memory, enhancing user privacy protection. Additionally, in the automatic call recording feature, DouBao Phone now mandatory plays a notification tone to protect the rights of both parties in the conversation.
Obric UI 1.0 has also undergone continuous optimization for the system and system applications. For example, the Phone app now displays the location and carrier information of incoming numbers, and the system has added features such as scheduled power on/off. Although most of these updates are foundational experience improvements, they demonstrate that Obric UI is steadily enhancing its capabilities to meet the requirements of a mature mobile operating system.
03. Negotiations with app developers continue, and the ecosystem remains the greatest challenge for the second-generation "Doubao Phone." Compared to upgrades in hardware, system, and AI capabilities, the biggest challenge for the second-generation "Doubao Phone" may still be its ecosystem.
When the first-generation "Doubao Phone" was launched, controversy quickly spread around the claim that "Doubao could directly operate the phone." Since the Doubao Phone Assistant can directly understand user commands and perform cross-app operations on behalf of users, many industry insiders believe this signifies that AI is evolving into a new system entry point—and may even reshape the way users interact with the mobile internet.
At the same time, some leading apps such as WeChat and Alipay have begun restricting the use of DouBao Mobile Assistant, and discussions around app permissions, user data, security responsibilities, and platform ecosystem boundaries continue to intensify. Tencent’s founder Ma Huateng once explicitly stated at the company’s annual meeting that Tencent opposes transmitting users’ mobile screens to the cloud, as it is “extremely insecure and irresponsible.”
To this day, although WeChat—the national-level super app—can be logged in normally on the DouBao phone, its AI functionality has not yet been enabled.
Most Alibaba and Ant Group applications, such as Taobao, Xianyu, Hema, Amap, and Lingguang, still maintain restrictions on AI operations on the DouBao Phone. DingTalk’s restrictions are even stricter, making it one of the very few major apps that cannot even log in normally on the DouBao Phone, let alone enable AI functionality.
In the DouBao Mobile Assistant community, users reported that they can only log in to DingTalk on "DouBao Mobile" by calling DingTalk's official customer service to file a complaint and strongly requesting account unblocking.
▲ User feedback indicates that DingTalk has imposed login restrictions on "Doubao Mobile" (source: Doubao Mobile Assistant community)
However, a significant number of apps already support DouBao’s mobile AI features. Based on the current system compatibility list, these apps span multiple categories, including map navigation, travel, shopping, e-commerce, office productivity, audiovisual entertainment, and lifestyle services, forming a comprehensive ecosystem that covers high-frequency daily scenarios.
From a practical standpoint, as long as the app is willing to open up, DouBao Mobile Assistant is already capable of performing a significant portion of operations, providing users with real convenience.
Coordination between DouBao Mobile and major app developers regarding AI permissions is still ongoing. From the capabilities already enabled, this process is not simply a matter of “open” or “not open,” but rather involves granular control at the feature level. For example, Tencent’s Stock Tracker currently supports DouBao Mobile Assistant for certain actions, such as retrieving financial market data via the app, but high-risk functions like stock trading remain restricted from AI access.
So, can the second-generation "DouBao Phone" break through the barriers of the ecosystem? From industry trends, over the past year, attitudes among domestic internet platforms toward AI Agents have changed significantly. National-level apps like WeChat and Alipay have begun rolling out their own AI assistants or Agent capabilities, exploring new interaction models that enable users to complete in-app tasks directly through natural language.
One possible future direction is for platforms to open standardized interfaces to system-level agents, allowing DouBao Mobile Assistant to handle understanding and orchestration, while individual services are still executed by each app’s own agent; another possibility is for platforms to continue strengthening their independent AI entry points, requiring users to switch between different apps, with system-level agents primarily serving to launch applications.
To date, ByteDance and Nubia have not disclosed further details regarding ecological partnerships for the second-generation "Doubao Phone."
04. Conclusion: Will the Next-Generation "Doubao Phone" Move from Experimental Product to Mainstream Market? Based on current leaks and reports, the second-generation Doubao phone is likely to take on the mission of reaching a broader consumer market. For a product aiming to appeal to more everyday users, a mature and comprehensive operating system, along with more stable and reliable AI capabilities, will undoubtedly be critical factors in shaping the user experience.
The DouBao Phone team is clearly continuously refining the product to enhance AI capabilities, system experience, and core functionalities, preparing for the software readiness of the second-generation DouBao Phone's large-scale launch.
When the second-generation "DouBao Phone" is officially released, the outcomes of its negotiations with major app developers, the degree of ecosystem openness, and its ability to deliver on user experience will be key to its success.
To achieve success, ByteDance and Nubia need more than just technological breakthroughs—they must convince app developers that system-level agents aren’t here to “take a slice of the pie,” but to help all apps grow the pie together. Whether the second-generation “Doubao Phone” can accomplish this will be answered most honestly by the market and the industry.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Zhixindong" (ID: zhidxcom), authored by Chen Junda, and is published with permission from 36Kr.