AI Tools & Apps

ByteDance adds Doubao keyboard with speech-to-text; DeepSeek pursues AI bet

December 4, 2025 • 2 min read

ByteDance is quietly widening the doors to its growing suite of AI‑powered products. After a series of updates to its Doubao platform, the company has turned its attention to everyday touchpoints—starting with the way users type and speak on their phones. The move comes as rivals such as DeepSeek double‑down on their own artificial‑intelligence ambitions, highlighting how divergent the strategies are within the same market segment.

While DeepSeek is betting on large‑scale language models, ByteDance appears to be stitching AI features into familiar consumer experiences, hoping to lock users into a broader ecosystem. This approach isn’t just about adding a new app; it’s about embedding voice‑driven capabilities where people already spend most of their digital time. The latest step, a keyboard that touts improved speech‑to‑text performance, is a clear signal that ByteDance wants its AI to be as ubiquitous as the text input itself.

Yet, the company’s most striking development this week was the rollout of a Doubao AI agent that can be woven into a…

Now, Doubao is offering a new keyboard app with what it claims is superior speech-to-text functionality, giving users another entry point into ByteDance's AI app ecosystem. But ByteDance's most ambitious move recently came on Monday, when it released a Doubao AI agent that can be integrated into a smartphone's operating system, giving it control over any app. In a preview video, ByteDance shows how Doubao can access Tesla's app and open the trunk using voice inputs, search through different ecommerce platforms to find the lowest prices, and access photos in a user's camera roll and enhance them with AI.

ByteDance is working with the Chinese smartphone manufacturer ZTE to preinstall the Doubao agent on one of its phone models, the Nubia M153, which sells for 3,499 RMB (about $500). ByteDance says it's also talking to other smartphone makers about installing its agent, but it seems unlikely that many will take it up on the offer--the most popular Chinese smartphone brands, like Huawei or Xiaomi, are all developing their own proprietary AI agents.

ByteDance and DeepSeek Are Placing Very Different AI Bets - WIRED AI

DeepSeek's V3.2 arrived today, an open‑weight model that the startup says matches OpenAI and Google on most tasks and even outperforms them on selected mathematics benchmarks. Yet the claim rests on internal testing; external validation is still pending. Meanwhile ByteDance pushed its Doubao suite further, rolling out a keyboard app that touts superior speech‑to‑text conversion and a new AI agent meant for integration across its services.

The move widens the company's consumer‑facing AI footprint, but how users will respond remains unclear. Does the added entry point translate into measurable engagement, or will it simply add another layer to an already crowded app environment? The contrast between DeepSeek's focus on a single, high‑performing model and ByteDance's strategy of embedding AI in multiple touchpoints illustrates divergent bets within China's AI sector.

Both firms claim competitive edge, yet independent assessments are lacking. As the two approaches unfold, their relative impact on the market stays uncertain.