ByteDance has introduced its first AI-powered smartphone, the nubia M153, developed in collaboration with ZTE.
The device runs an engineering prototype of ZTE’s nubia M153 with ByteDance’s Doubao AI agent deeply integrated into Android at the OS level.
However, several popular Chinese apps limited Doubao’s voice-controlled functions.
The reason? Doubao’s AI has extensive control over the phone. It can interact with the user interface, choose and download apps, make orders, tap, type, make calls, and execute multi-step tasks autonomously.
Now, Doubao can no longer claim rewards meant for human users. It is also blocked from accessing financial apps, like banking and payments, and from playing competitive games to keep things fair.
Apps such as Alipay, Pinduoduo, Taobao, and Ele.me now restrict Doubao, though users can still use these apps manually, and some users reported account freezes when trying to control these apps with the AI assistant.
The nubia M153, made with ZTE is priced at CNY3,499 (approx. PHP29,299). It is only available for order online in China.
ByteDance said the phone does not store user activity on its servers and will not use this data to train AI.
As mentioned, the device is an engineering prototype and isn’t planned for a global release yet, as it’s mainly meant to showcase technology, not for mass-market sales.
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