Honor introduces DeepSeek R1 support for selected devices

The feature is limited to China for now, with no word on a global roll out yet.

by Kelechi Edeh

Updated February 13, 2025

It looks like artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming the must-have feature for smartphones. From Apple Siri upgrade with Apple Intelligence to Samsung’s AI-powered Bixby, smartphone brands are scrambling to supercharge their digital assistants.

Now, Chinese manufacturers seem to be joining the race by integrating DeepSeek R1—an AI model that’s already turning heads and raising eyebrows globally—into their devices.

Honor is the latest to join the trend, announcing DeepSeek R1 support for its YOYO assistant, starting with MagicOS 8.0+ devices in China. With over 130 million monthly active users, YOYO is already a major player in Honor’s ecosystem, and this upgrade promises sharper natural language understanding, better logical reasoning, and more human-like interactions. But Honor isn't the first—Huawei’s Celia app rolled out DeepSeek R1 integration weeks ago, and OPPO’s upcoming Find N5 device is also expected to feature the AI model.

DeepSeek R1’s open-source flexibility has made it a hot commodity. Running on an MIT license, it's free for commercial and academic use, attracting big names in tech. Its reasoning-focused approach, with chain-of-thought transparency, allows users to see how the AI processes complex tasks—something users say OpenAI’s O1 reasoning model seems to lack.

But not everyone seems thrilled. Countries like Australia and Italy have already banned DeepSeek over data privacy concerns, and a cybersecurity firm has linked it to a Chinese telecom giant blacklisted in the US. With privacy becoming a growing concern with the AI model, it begs the question of what it would mean for these brands betting on DeepSeek if they do decide on a global launch for their devices.

For now, though, Honor’s DeepSeek-powered YOYO assistant is exclusive to China, with no word on a global rollout yet. And with OPPO planning a global launch for the Find N5 in the coming weeks, it'll be interesting to see if the devices outside of China come with the DeepSeek integration.