ByteDance short video service Douyin offers users quick access to AI chatbot

The initiative could potentially widen the reach of Doubao, ByteDance’s AI chatbot, to the 880 million monthly active users on Douyin

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ByteDance recently allowed selected users of short video app Douyin to initiate conversations with chatbot Doubao, without having to log on to the AI assistant. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 9:00pm, 5 Mar 2025Updated: 9:14pm, 5 Mar 2025

Social-media giant ByteDance is seeking to leverage the popularity of its domestic short video app, Douyin, to widen the usage of the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Doubao.

TikTok sibling Douyin – which had 880 million monthly active users in January, according to market research firm Analysys Qianfan – recently allowed selected users to initiate conversations with Doubao, without having to log on to the chatbot.

Douyin users could start chatting via the short video app’s direct messaging section, where Doubao automatically appears alongside other private conversations, or by clicking on a button beside the like, comment and share icons found on the side of each video.

A Douyin representative said on Wednesday that Doubao-related tests on the short video app were being conducted to “provide richer AI services to users”.

These tests appear to date back to mid-December 2024, according to screenshots shared by Douyin users.

Apart from that effort, ByteDance on Monday announced that the new 1.5 version of its AI model, also named Doubao, and DeepSeek reasoning model R1 have been integrated into its office tool, Feishu.