In December 2025, an engineering prototype sold out within 48 hours, with second-hand prices soaring to 8,000 yuan. Then, WeChat logins failed, Alipay requested verification, and banking apps refused service. A phone that was snapped up became a 'useless ornament' within days.

Nine and a half months later, its successor arrived.

On September 16, 2026, the Nubia NaviXUltra—commonly known as the 'Doubao Second-Generation Phone'—officially went on sale, starting at 5,999 yuan, or 5,499 yuan after national subsidies. JD.com pre-orders have surpassed 370,000. It claims to be the 'world's first AI agent phone,' equipped with the Doubao Phone Assistant consumer version, focusing on 'one-sentence cross-app operations' with an end-to-end task success rate exceeding 80%.

But what deserves more attention than the specs is what the company learned from a brutal failure and what its current choices mean for the entire smartphone industry.

01 The First Generation's 'Ghost Finger': Technology Won, Ecosystem Lost

To understand the significance of the second generation, we must first examine what happened with the first.

In December last year, Doubao released a technical preview of its phone assistant. Its core capability was obtaining Android system-level INJECT_EVENTS permissions—in layman's terms, the AI assistant could view your screen and simulate your finger to click any button in any app. You could ask it to send a WeChat message, and it would open WeChat, find the contact, type, and send. You could ask it to order food, and it would open Meituan, select a meal, and place the order.

Technologically, it was impressive. Luo Yonghao exclaimed on Weibo, 'The technological revolution is unstoppable,' while Zhou Hongyi of 360 predicted, 'Mobile operating systems are about to change.'

However, technological impressiveness quickly collided with the impenetrable wall of reality.

Two days after the product launch, users began encountering abnormal WeChat logins and blocked access or operations in apps like Taobao and China Construction Bank. Pony Ma publicly stated that using a plug-in to record and transmit user screen activity to the cloud was 'extremely unsafe and irresponsible.' A phone that was snapped up became a 'useless ornament' within days. The first generation's failure boiled down to one sentence: It tried to bypass commercial rules with technological capabilities, but the counterattack from commercial rules was faster than technology.

02 The Second Generation Changes Tactics: From 'Breaking In' to 'Knocking and Asking'

Nine and a half months later, the second generation abandoned the 'ghost finger' approach.

The new phone introduced a screen automation operation declaration protocol and initiated a 30-day rule public notice (public display). Under this agreement, third-party apps can autonomously declare operational boundaries, explicitly allowing or refusing AI assistants to perform automated operations within their apps. 'We will fully respect developers' wishes and will not perform automated operations on third-party apps that explicitly refuse such operations,' Doubao stated.

From 'I can operate you' to 'I'll use whatever you're willing to let me use.' From breaking in to knocking and asking.

Real-world experience confirms this shift. A reporter from National Business Daily found that using the Doubao Assistant to open apps like WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Meituan, and Taobao for posting, ordering, or online shopping was temporarily unavailable. After giving Doubao the instruction 'Help me order a cup of coffee,' external e-commerce apps like Taobao Flash Sales and JD.com were not supported, and Doubao suggested ordering through Douyin instead.

Currently, the voice-operated AI agent prioritizes coverage of ByteDance's products, with access to all ByteDance-owned services, while third-party apps include only a few authorized providers like Cao Cao Mobility. However, a noteworthy detail remains: the second generation's coverage of its core selling point, 'cross-app operations,' may be narrower than the first generation's—while the first generation was blocked, it could forcibly complete tasks before being shut down; the second generation's capabilities depend entirely on app developers' willingness to open up. If they don't, you can't do anything.

Some analysts directly point out that Doubao still uses system-level INJECT_EVENTS permissions, essentially 'holding a master key and waiting for users to refuse,' contrary to the approaches of other mainstream manufacturers that require apps to proactively authorize structured interfaces. This agreement is equivalent to your neighbor saying, 'I'll give you 30 days—if you don't explicitly refuse me, after 30 days, I can do whatever I want with you'—and to 'help you get a divorce,' they even give you a 30-day cooling-off period.

03 Not Just Doubao: Three AI Agent Phones, Three Approaches

Expanding the perspective reveals that the Doubao phone is not an isolated case.

In July 2026, three AI agent phones debuted at WAIC, becoming one of the most crowded sections. They took three entirely different approaches: Nubia + ByteDance: Cross-app operation route. Starting by breaking through app barriers, letting AI operate third-party apps for you. It advanced the fastest but also hit walls first.

Jieyue Xingchen STEPXNeo: System-level reconstruction route. Equipped with the agent-native operating system StepOS, it reconstructed from the bottom layer framework (bottom-level framework) and included the personal agent Amoo. Through API solutions, it established partnerships with platforms like Alipay, Baidu, Meituan, JD.com, Didi, Ctrip, Gaode Maps, and WPS. This path is more 'legitimate' but requires persuading all platforms to integrate, a massive undertaking.

Honor RobotPhone: Embodied interaction route. Its iconic design is a four-degree-of-freedom titanium alloy mechanical gimbal, with a mechanical arm lens module that pops out from the back of the phone, rotating 360 degrees freely in 0.8 seconds, supporting 360-degree object tracking. It extends AI's 'perception layer' from the screen into the physical world.

A senior analyst at Counterpoint noted that this generation of AI agent phones is fundamentally different from previous 'AI phones,' with capabilities extending further—not only completing more complex searches and answers but also automatically executing multi-step operations around predefined goals. The three approaches have different divisions of labor but share the same goal: transforming phones from 'tools' into 'entities that act for you.'

04 Industrial Turning Point Behind the Numbers

This isn't just about a few products. The entire smartphone industry is undergoing a structural shift.

IDC data shows that in 2025, AI phone shipments in China exceeded 118 million units, accounting for 40.7% of the overall market; in 2026, next-generation AI phone shipments are expected to reach 147 million units, a 31.6% YoY increase, with penetration exceeding 53% for the first time. Counterpoint predicts that by 2026, GenAI phones will account for 45% of global shipments, surpassing 52% in 2027, officially becoming the industry standard.

Meanwhile, the overall smartphone market is declining. In Q2 2026, China shipped 66.01 million units, down 4.3% YoY, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of decline. The industry desperately needs a new narrative to drive upgrades, and AI agents are seen as the hope. Policy is also accelerating support. In May 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments jointly launched the national standard 'Artificial Intelligence Terminal Intelligence Grading,' ranging from L1 (responsive) to L4 (collaborative), with terminal intelligence levels increasing accordingly.

In July, the Cyberspace Administration of China publicly released, for the first time, Record Filing Information (filing information) for generative AI services on mobile devices from seven manufacturers: Apple, Huawei, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi, Samsung, and Nubia. On-device AI officially received a 'green light' from a regulatory perspective. Technical validation, product iteration, mass production conditions, and compliance approvals—all four conditions are in place simultaneously for the first time.

05 Core Conflict: The Allure of Convenience vs. Platforms' Survival Logic

Returning to the original question: Can the Doubao Second-Generation Phone succeed?

This depends on resolving a fundamental conflict—the structural clash between the convenience of AI assistants and the business models of super apps. If Doubao can directly help you order food, shop, or hail a ride, do users still need to open Meituan, Taobao, or Didi?

Who will view the splash ads? Who will browse the recommended feeds? Will the platforms' gateway value remain? Not to mention, the essence of AI acting for you is reducing how often users open apps and how long they stay, directly impacting ad revenue.

Tencent's explicit opposition is not unfounded. This isn't just a privacy issue—it's a fundamental clash of business models.

Conversely, ByteDance's own Douyin is one of China's strongest mobile internet traffic gateways. If one day, another manufacturer's AI assistant could directly operate Douyin, help users browse videos, like, and place orders—what would ByteDance think?

This is the 'Catch-22' faced by all AI agent phone manufacturers: You need to open up to let others in, but opening up means your own gateway might be bypassed.

06 Final Thoughts

The first-generation Doubao phone proved that technology can break through, but ecosystems cannot be bypassed.

The second generation chose a pragmatic middle path—finding space within regulatory frameworks, replacing force with agreements, and invasion with negotiation. The direction may be right, but success depends not on the model's capability limits but on the collective choices of phone manufacturers, app developers, regulators, and the market.

Ni Fei said something that may be closer to the essence than any parameter: 'Whether a product is good or not doesn't depend on what others say—it only counts when consumers actually use it and find it handy.'

2026 may be remembered as the turning point when smartphones transformed from 'tools' into 'action terminals.' But on this path, the Doubao phone is merely the first to truly step inside. Whether the road ahead is smooth or fraught with pitfalls will become clearer after the 30-day cooling-off period.