How AI is killing smartphone apps in China

#1

Post by mikelgan » Mon, Aug 03, 2026, 4:10 PM UTC

How AI is killing smartphone apps in China
computerworld.com

Re: How AI is killing smartphone apps in China

#2

Post by mikelgan » Mon, Aug 03, 2026, 4:10 PM UTC

While Apple and Google are adding AI apps to smartphones, Chinese companies are replacing apps with AI.

Re: How AI is killing smartphone apps in China

#3

Post by jdw64 » Mon, Aug 03, 2026, 4:18 PM UTC

I got curious and searched a bit on Chinese sites, Zhihu, and Baidu. The relationship seems to be correct, but there are some complex points. I don't think it's at the point of collapse yet.

It's true that third party apps like photo editing and translation are being absorbed into AI, but in China, WeChat as a super app has already been absorbing the entire app ecosystem for a long time. They often require things to run inside WeChat. In fact, one of the apps I built as a subcontractor was exactly that.

So it's hard to say it's entirely due to AI agents.

And rather than AI killing apps outright, I think the shift is toward background API calls. B2C in app payments might decline, but it could transition to a B2B API billing model instead.