It is rumored that ByteDance's Doubao has reached a cooperation agreement with a top 5 domestic mobile phone manufacturer, and the second-generation Doubao phone is expected to be released in Q2.

According to 1M AI News , digital blogger Digital Chat Station posted on Weibo yesterday, "Want a Doubao AI phone? I've heard that a top 5 domestic phone manufacturer has already partnered with it," hinting that ByteDance's Doubao AI phone business is expanding from Nubia (ZTE) to leading manufacturers. Comments widely speculate that the partner is Vivo. Previously, in January, it was reported that ByteDance was adopting a differentiated strategy with leading manufacturers: with major companies like OPPO and Honor, they were mainly discussing modular technology cooperation such as model calling and Doubao input method, while with brands like Transsion, Meizu, and Lenovo, they preferred to directly integrate the Doubao AI entry point into their systems. Huawei and Xiaomi, due to their own ecosystems and self-developed large models, were considered the least likely to cooperate.

ByteDance has launched the official version project of "Doubao Mobile Assistant," with the second-generation Doubao phone expected to be released in the mid-to-late Q2 of 2026, continuing its joint development with Nubia. The first-generation version, released last November, was a technical preview (nubia M153), which was blocked by apps like WeChat and Alipay due to its ability to operate the phone silently in the background. ByteDance is currently negotiating access permissions with major app providers such as ride-hailing and food delivery companies, attempting to resolve app compatibility issues in the official version.