Doubao App: Key Updates, Features, and Milestones from 2023 to 2024

ByteDance's AI chat application Doubao has emerged as a prominent player in China's AI app landscape, hitting 100 million daily active users (DAU) by December 2023—making it one of ByteDance's lowest-cost apps to reach the 100 million user milestone. The app has continuously evolved with new features to cater to diverse user needs.

For e-commerce integration, Doubao rolled out in-app shopping in March 2023, allowing direct purchase and payment within the app. Later updates added 'Help You Choose' for conversational shopping and 'Scan to Pay' to complete the AI-to-payment loop. It also ventured into navigation with 'Doubao Navigation' in June 2023, supporting walking and cycling routes.

Communication features got a boost: video calls (May 2023) enable real-time Q&A and visual understanding, while real-time voice calls were upgraded with a full-duplex model (April 2023) for better anti-interference and low latency. Dialect support for Cantonese, Northeast Chinese, Shaanxi, and Sichuanese was also added.

Productivity tools include 'AI Podcast' (June 2023) for one-click natural voice generation, 'In-depth Research' for complex task handling, and HTML code preview for programming support. Creative features like Seedream 4.0 (AI image editing with 20 innovative methods) and 'One-sentence P图' (text replacement in images) enhanced content creation.

Safety measures include an underage mode (August 2023) disabling video displays by default and strict restrictions on AI-generated celebrity content (February 2023). The app also addressed college entrance exam period AI tool usage concerns.

Monetization started in June 2023 with three-tier paid subscriptions (basic features free), with the professional version starting at 68 yuan/month. Other updates: smart agent shutdown (July 15, 2024), museum guide mode (20+ museums), Seed 2.0 Lite (full-modal AI model), and Apple App Store homepage recognition.

Sources

• Pianyi Technology (https://m.pianyi-sjczk.com/zhuanqu/9259965477546)