(Yicai) Oct. 15 -- Some 151 applications have declined to allow automated operations by the phone assistant powered by ByteDance’s artificial intelligence tool Doubao, including Tencent Holdings’ super app WeChat and mobile game Honor of Kings, Alibaba Group’s e‑commerce site Taobao, Ant Group’s mobile payment platform Alipay, and AI apps DeepSeek and Kimi.

Doubao Phone Assistant’s 30-day public consultation period for its Screen Automation Execution Protocol ended, the agent announced yesterday, revealing the latest list of apps that refused it. The assistant will gradually expand its screen automation capabilities to third-party apps, but will not operate apps that have explicitly declined permission, it noted.

The list covers apps on Nubia’s M153 and NaviX Ultra phones and is updated every Wednesday. By ecosystem, it includes 65 apps affiliated with Tencent, 23 with Alibaba, 14 with short-video platform operator Kuaishou Technology, and 11 with lifestyle service provider Meituan.

The remaining apps include those affiliated with Hangzhou-based smart home security brand Ezviz, as well as apps from China Merchants Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and the country’s three largest telecom operators -- China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom. In addition to DeepSeek and Kimi, other AI apps on the list include Tencent’s Yuanbao, Alibaba’s Qwen, and Kuaishou’s Kling AI.

Under SAEP, developers can specify whether to allow AI agents to operate their apps based on the app, page, and intended action, and can submit a form or email Doubao to configure permissions on their behalf. Developers can still decline permission after the consultation period, with Doubao saying it will respond within three working days. The list does not disclose the specific reasons behind each app’s decision.

ByteDance’s Doubao team developed the phone assistant in collaboration with smartphone manufacturers at the system level, with Nubia as its project partner. It introduced the M153 engineering prototype last December and launched the NaviX Ultra on Sept. 16, with Doubao leading the assistant’s user experience and Nubia handling hardware development and manufacturing.

The assistant has previously encountered conflicts with app security controls, including M153 users reporting that running WeChat through the assistant caused the messaging app to exit unexpectedly in early December last year. A representative from the super app said there had been no specific action on its part, noting that the issue may have triggered existing security controls.

On the evening of Sept. 24, NaviX Ultra users reported receiving device-environment warnings and being forcibly logged out when signing into Honor of Kings. A day later, Doubao Phone Assistant said it had not performed any operations on Tencent’s game systems and was communicating with the tech giant, but had not yet received a clear response. The cause of the issues remains unconfirmed.

Editor: Martin Kadiev