ByteDance’s Doubao phone assistant ended a 30-day public notice period for its Screen Automation Execution Protocol on 14 October and will gradually enable screen automation in third-party apps whose developers have not opted out, Pandaily reported. A count by National Business Daily put the number of apps refusing access at 151, including 65 in the Tencent ecosystem and 23 in Alibaba’s.
The protocol, known as SAEP, governs agents that read an app’s screen and simulate taps and typing. Android developers can set access rules for an entire app, an individual page or a particular task. The assistant said in September that it would favour direct connections with apps and use screen operation when those connections were unavailable.
Paying for a purchase could therefore involve a screen the assistant is barred from operating, or a step that would require confirmation, even where it could handle other parts of the task. SAEP’s system-level controls cover screenshots, accessibility access, taps and text input.
The refusal list includes WeChat, QQ, Honor of Kings, Taobao, Qwen and Alipay. Developers can submit a refusal after the notice period, and the assistant said it would promptly stop the relevant operations when it receives one.
