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2026-11-11 19:52
Just now, Bloomberg reported that Byte is preparing a personal AI Agent (intelligent) similar to Meta Muse, hoping to catch up with its opponents in a new round of AI competition.
The goal of this product is to allow Doubao to go further out of the chat box and become a personal assistant that can remember user needs, proactively plan and execute tasks.
Looking back at the past end of September, Doubao’s homepage had an entry called “Bean Bags for Travel”.
Users only need to tell it where they want to go, and they can check air tickets, buy train tickets, call a taxi, and even book a hotel through Beanbao. Operations that used to require switching back and forth between several apps are now concentrated in one chat box.
And ByteDance obviously has bigger plans.
From bean bag phone to real personal agent
Byte’s exploration of personal agents preceded this Bloomberg report.
According to Caixin’s previous disclosure, Byte internally launched a project codenamed “Spell” as early as April this year. It is mainly responsible for the Doubao mobile assistant team to explore the product form of personal AI assistants.
After Meta launched the personal intelligence Muse in early September, Byte further accelerated the project progress and planned to have the Spell project cooperate with the Doubao dialogue team to integrate relevant functions into Doubao.
Muse can communicate with users just like a regular Chatbot, but its work doesn't stop when the chat ends.
Users can hand over a task that takes days or even weeks, and let Muse plan the steps, search for information, call external services, and send messages to the user when it encounters links that require confirmation.
In order to support this operation method, Meta has also prepared a special cloud virtual machine system Muse Secure VM for Muse. Each agent has an independent execution environment. It can use the browser and access external services within the scope of user authorization, and continue to process unfinished work.
Looking back to China, Byte has actually been exploring along this route for some time.
In December last year, a technical preview version of Doubao Mobile Assistant was unveiled. It can understand the content of the mobile phone screen and complete some app operations on behalf of the user by simulating clicks and other methods.
In September this year, Nubia NaviX Ultra equipped with the consumer version of Doubao Mobile Assistant was officially launched for sale, further bringing these functions to ordinary consumers.
In August this year, Byte launched “Beanbao Work” for productivity scenarios. After connecting with Feishu, it can read work information within the scope of authorization, autonomously dismantle tasks, call tools, and complete operations through a virtual computer or browser.
In October, Beanbag Jobs also added the ability to record personal skills. Users only need to demonstrate the operation process on the computer once, and the AI can learn to perform similar tasks repeatedly, even continuing to work after the Mac locks the screen.
From simulated clicks on mobile phones, to automated operations on computers, to accessing life services such as travel and accommodation, Byte has prepared many tools for Doubao that can truly do things for users.
Spell may bring these explorations dispersed in different products into a more complete personal assistant form.
419 million Doubao users, and another trump card of Douyin
In addition to technology, Byte also has a very obvious advantage: user scale.
The "AI Application Market Development Report for the Third Quarter of 2026" released by QuestMobile in October this year showed that as of September, Doubao App's monthly active users reached 419 million, a year-on-year increase of 143.6%.
During the same period, the monthly active users of Qianwen and DeepSeek were 158 million and 123 million respectively. Doubao’s monthly activity has exceeded the sum of the two, and it occupies a leading position in the domestic AI native app market.
Of greater concern is the frequency of use. QuestMobile data shows that in September this year, the average number of Douban users per month reached 72 times, an average of more than twice a day.
While other AI products are still struggling to get users to open the app, Doubao has become a daily tool used by hundreds of millions of people. For Byte, new products can be built directly on this group of existing users, eliminating the long process of retraining usage habits.
But compared to the scale of Doubao itself, the Douyin behind it may be more worthy of attention.
The "China Mobile Internet Autumn Report" released by QuestMobile on November 3 shows that in September 2026, the number of monthly active users of the Douyin App reached 1.029 billion, and the number of deduplicated users of the entire Douyin Group reached 1.259 billion.
Over the past decade or so, Douyin has built a mature personalized recommendation system based on massive content and user behavior.
According to Douyin’s public algorithm filing instructions, browsing, searching, following, collecting, and interaction records in e-commerce and local life scenes are all important basis for the recommendation system to judge user interests.
What a person is interested in recently, what products he plans to buy, and what consumer services he is paying attention to, these behaviors will affect the content he sees next.
TikTok has become very good at predicting what users want to see. And if individual Agents can access relevant information and services with user authorization, Byte may be able to extend this advantage to the user's next action.
For example, users have recently collected a lot of camping guides on Douyin and are checking weekend weather and traffic in Doubao. Personal Agents will have the opportunity to connect originally scattered operations, help screen campsites, formulate routes, and complete reservations through cooperative services.
In the past, Douyin’s recommendation system was responsible for pushing content to users. As for what to do after watching it, users had to decide and operate it themselves.
Personal Agent gives Byte the opportunity to participate in the subsequent process: from the user's interest, to making a request, to completing a transaction or arranging a service.
From "guess you like it" to "help you complete it", what Byte wants to compete for may no longer just be the time users stay in front of the screen.
Zheng Tingxu
Hardware editor
Could be better.
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