The first smartphone manufacturers to incorporate DeepSeek into their devices were Huawei and Honor
DeepSeek didn’t take long to reach mobile devices, and the AI coming from China is expected to change the current landscape of this technology. Until now, companies have relied on proposals coming directly from the US, such as Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Now, Asian manufacturers have their own AI, which means destabilizing the dependency on products or services. Huawei and HONOR are the first to decide to integrate DeepSeek into their devices.
Huawei and HONOR’s announcement may have surprised users and other companies alike, but it’s a logical move. Both HONOR and Huawei have smart assistants that aren’t on par with the competition, with Google being one of the biggest backers in this regard. The goal of integrating DeepSeek is to create a new way to understand user interactions with the device, and seek to improve the user experience.
How is this integration planned? HONOR’s announcement suggests that YOYO, HONOR’s smart assistant, will be the one welcoming DeepSeek with open arms. The DeepSeek-R1 model will be part of YOYO, and the improvement needed is to ensure YOYO can compete with Gemini.
As for Huawei, the situation is similar, as the DeepSeek-R1 model will become part of Celia. This move will allow Huawei’s assistant to integrate artificial intelligence to perform more complex tasks.
The whole process is already underway; in fact, what can be read about these plans is that HONOR has already started the process of integrating DeepSeek. Users in the selected launch countries will find that YOYO will have DeepSeek.
In Huawei's case, the company has already prepared a beta version of Celia that includes DeepSeek-R1 integration, so it's clear that they'll be taking this new approach more quietly into their devices.