The second generation bean bag mobile phone has not solved the old problem

Source | Bohu Finance (bohuFN)

Author | Kaikai

Recently, Nubia NaviX Ultra has been officially launched for sale. It is the first model to be equipped with the consumer version of Byte’s Beanbag mobile assistant. It is also known as the “second-generation Beanbao mobile phone”. The starting price is 5,999 yuan, and it is 5,499 yuan after national subsidies.

Less than a year after the debut of the first-generation Beanbag mobile phone, ByteDance and Nubia launched the mass-produced second-generation Beanbag mobile phone, which inevitably revealed urgency. But looking at the current AI mobile phone melee, it is not difficult to understand.

In the past year, mobile phones have become an important carrier of device-side AI. Honor, vivo, and OPPO have all made AI assistants the core selling point of their new phones, and large model companies such as Step Star are also eager to try it. Across the ocean, OpenAI is also building its own mobile phone hardware.

Everyone wants to take advantage of this AI revolution. However, what the outside world is most curious about is that the first-generation Doubao mobile phone started with the vision of “mobile phones do things for people”, but was blocked by many mainstream apps. How can the second-generation mobile phone solve this problem?

Byte did not give a perfect answer. Many bloggers have found through actual testing that the current second-generation bean bag mobile phones are still restricted in many commonly used apps. Recently, some netizens used second-generation Doubao mobile phones to log in to Honor of Kings and were forced to be kicked offline, which aroused heated discussions.

Although Doubao Mobile has started again with new rules, there are still only a handful of apps that are willing to hand over their ecosystem. As long as the ecological side still holds the veto power, it will be difficult for people outside the wall to really come in.

01 The “ecological hurdle” has not been crossed yet

Of course, the second-generation bean bag mobile phone also has an improved side.

So far, the second-generation Doubao mobile phone has delivered a good first-run report card. Officials revealed that its first-sale sales exceeded 100 million in one second.

From the evaluations of major media and bloggers, the second-generation Beanbao mobile phone also has many improvements that are visible to the naked eye.

In appearance, the overall body has become lighter. There is an AI button on the side of the body. Users can directly activate different AI functions with a single or double-click. The entire operation process is smoother, and security and privacy issues can be unlocked through the fingerprint lock.

In terms of the AI ​​functions that users are most concerned about, the second-generation Beanbao mobile phone has both surprises and disappointments.

Surprisingly, the biggest highlight of the first-generation Beanbag mobile phone is that users can call the AI ​​assistant in one sentence. The second-generation Beanbag mobile phone is not only capable, but also more “brainy”.

In the video posted by the blogger “Xiaobai Evaluation” at Station B, the user asked “Call me a car to go to XX”, and the Doubao phone can automatically perform the task, confirm the address and initiate an order.

It can also help users book air tickets and hotels across APPs; search for music, books, etc. according to user instructions; Doubao mobile phone has more in-depth access to Feishu, which can summarize meeting recordings, generate PPT, documents, etc., and help users work with one mobile phone.

Moreover, the second-generation Beanbag mobile phone is smarter and more proactive than the previous generation mobile phone when performing these routine tasks.

For example, after the user gives an instruction, Doubao will decide whether to activate the deep thinking mode; Doubao’s memory has also become better, and it can retrieve the stored data in the user’s mobile phone to provide users with more personalized services…

But unfortunately, the second-generation Beanbao mobile phone still cannot be used in all APPs.

In the demonstration of the first-generation Doubao mobile phone, when the user gives a command, the mobile phone can automatically compare prices in the shopping APP and add products to the shopping cart. The user only needs to complete the final payment operation.

However, the second-generation Doubao mobile phone can currently only perform the above operations on designated shopping platforms; if you want to order takeout, Taobao flash sales, Meituan, and JD.com do not support the order operation; if you want to like Xiaohongshu or WeChat Moments, Doubao mobile phone also shows that the task failed.

To put it simply, many mainstream apps still set restrictions on Doubao phones. Netizens joked that this is probably a Byte-specific machine. Whether ordering takeout, watching videos, or listening to music, you have to rely on the Byte ecological APP to perform it.

This hurdle that Doubao mobile phones have been unable to overcome is the ecological wall between different apps.

Doubao Mobile wants to be the only entrance to services for users, but every APP wants to keep users at their own entrance. This is not just a battle for entrance, but also a battle for interests.

The solution to the bean bag mobile phone is to change from “breaking in” to “knocking on the door”.

Just two days before the press conference, Doubao Mobile Assistant officially released the “Screen Automation Statement Agreement (SAEP)”, leaving the choice of whether to enter the APP to third-party applications.

To put it simply, whether the Doubao phone can call the APP will depend on three steps:

The first step is to see if the APP adopts MCP (Model Context Protocol) or A2A (Agent to Agent) protocol. If the two parties have reached an agreement, Doubao will not open the interface, but will directly send the requirements to the APP, and Doubao will only feedback the results.

In the second step, if there is no agreement between the two parties, Doubao Mobile will follow the SAEP rules. The APP can declare boundaries at three levels: page, business intention, and operation type, and Doubao Mobile will perform tasks within the allowed range.

In the third step, if the APP explicitly refuses Doubao Mobile to access, then Doubao Mobile will only open the APP for the user, and the user needs to perform the task manually.

This time, Doubao Mobile has lowered its profile. Under a stricter compliance framework, third-party APPs with ecological capabilities determine how much Doubao Mobile can do and how deeply it can do it.

02 Each family has its own bills

However, after the second-generation Beanbao mobile phone handed over the initiative, it could do fewer things, and its most attractive selling point became a promise that could not be fully fulfilled.

But for beanbag phones, this is also a helpless choice.

From the first generation to the second generation, what the Doubao mobile phone wants to do has not changed: it wants to be the user’s AI assistant, operating the entire mobile phone for the user, and turning the mobile phone from a tool that requires manual operation to a super butler who understands words and gets things done.

This vision is wonderful, but there are too many agents, platforms and smart hardware that want to grab this position. Each player has his own business experience, and no one can really open up the ecosystem to meet opponents before calculating the cost account clearly.

However, this business can be negotiated.

APPs want to guard their own entrances, but they also covet the huge traffic of the byte system. Therefore, the APP will block the first-generation Doubao mobile phones that directly enter without permission, but it can sit down and negotiate with the second-generation Douban phones.

In the current actual test, Doubao mobile phone still cannot be directly operated on mainstream APPs such as Taobao, Alipay, Meituan, WeChat, and Xiaohongshu, but through SAEP, it also leaves room for future access to these APPs.

As for whether the Doubao mobile phone can eventually join the ecosystem and how many functions it can use, it depends on how much sincerity the two parties can show in cooperation.

QuestMobile data shows that in June 2026, Doubao’s monthly active users reached 382 million, and byte-based traffic is expected to bring new increments to transaction apps.

However, the Byte system has mastered more user profiles and shopping preferences, and will have an increasing impact on user transaction flows. For Byte’s direct competitors, this account may not be so easy to settle.

Interestingly, WeChat has successively opened A2A capabilities to Huawei, Honor, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, etc. this year, but the names of Nubia and Doubao are not on this cooperation list.

But obviously, Doubao Mobile does not want to give up the story of AI mobile phones.

In fact, Doubao mobile phones do not necessarily need a mobile phone if they want to “do things for users”. At present, Doubao’s transaction module has been gradually connected to e-commerce, local life, travel and other fields. Users can also achieve “one sentence service” through Doubao APP.

But this model also has its own ceiling, that is, no matter how powerful Doubao is, he still lives in other people’s hardware. How much data Doubao can read, how deep the system interface can be adjusted, etc. are all beyond your control.

So Doubao must build a “body” for himself. With its own hardware, it can have the highest management authority, fully read user data, understand the context, and have the opportunity to define the next generation of intelligent interaction.

However, there are not only Doubao mobile phones in this position, but also other mobile phone manufacturers and smart hardware manufacturers. Large model companies such as Alibaba are also competing for this “entrance” by cooperating with hardware manufacturers.

Mobile phone manufacturers guard the hardware entrance, and third-party APPs guard the ecological entrance. If AI phones and Agents hope to take a step forward and complete the “finding entrance” on behalf of users, they have to face these two hurdles head-on.

Either you can build the system, ecology, and AI intelligence all from scratch, or you can sit down and talk about cooperation and transfer some power to each other in exchange for a ticket.

03 Who will get control of the mobile phone?

Of course, this is not the problem Doubao Mobile is experiencing. All agents who want to master the entrance face the same two hurdles.

This is why in the past six months, cross-border cooperation between large model manufacturers and mobile phone manufacturers has become increasingly intensive, because no one can climb these two mountains alone.

But a new problem will arise. If the Agent cannot break through the ecological wall of the APP, it will be difficult for consumers to truly obtain an AI assistant that can “call everything in one sentence”.

So, is AI mobile phone still the best form for Agent implementation?

One reference comes from overseas. In September this year, Meta released the personal AI assistant Muse. One week after it was launched, it has ranked first on the free list of the US App Store.

Its popularity is not because of how subversive the technology and experience are, but because it solves a common problem of the previous generation of cloud agents: “lobster” seems to be able to do everything, but nothing is useful enough.

Therefore, Muse is designed as an independent APP, eliminating the installation threshold; it solves security and memory problems through an independent virtual machine; it also gives users free tokens, mainly relying on transaction fees to recover costs;

The most important thing is that Muse has found a scenario that can really retain users. It is mainly responsible for tasks such as sending and receiving emails, filling out forms, booking travel, etc. for the general public. Its popularity also proves the huge potential demand for consumer-grade Agents.

But the problem is that it is difficult for domestic agents to simply copy Muse’s path. It’s not because the domestic agents are not smart enough, but the control is not in the hands of the agents at all.

Overseas, mail and credit card payment are infrastructure, and there are not many interest relationships between web pages. Muse can complete tasks with lower friction costs.

But in China, the mobile Internet has already packed these services into several super APPs. If the Agent wants to help users perform tasks, it will first encounter the “ecological wall”, and it will become more tortuous for the Agent to do things.

But looking optimistically, although the current situation of domestic APP fragmentation is chaotic, it also means that each ecology can independently complete the closed loop of “social + content + function + payment”. As long as the ecological interface is opened up, “mobile phones do things for people” is not just a wish.

However, taking this first step is bound to not be easy.

Doubao Mobile knows this very well. According to media reports, the overall inventory of second-generation bean bag mobile phones is about 200,000 units, and the first batch is less than 100,000 units. Judging from the expected shipment volume, bean bag mobile phones are still just a “test field.”

But even so, it does not mean that other mobile phone manufacturers and large model manufacturers can take it lightly. Doubao mobile phone comes with problems and aims to solve them through product iteration.

In the final analysis, the biggest problem facing AI mobile phones today is not an engineering problem, but an ecological problem.

How many ecosystems Doubao Mobile can use depends on how much chips Byte can offer. As long as enough patience and sincerity are given, the current interest pattern will have the opportunity to be readjusted.

The entrance is face, and the roots are lining. Only when Agent truly penetrates into the user’s daily life and work can it gain stronger control than the entrance.

Therefore, Doubao rushes into the window when other mobile phone manufacturers are intensively releasing new products, which can at least give consumers one more choice and reference. Regarding the question of which AI is better, Doubao Mobile is also an answer worth testing.