Apple Intelligence testing in China starts November 4, with Alibaba's help

Apple announced that the first core Apple Intelligence features will begin testing in China starting November 4, through the latest iOS developer beta, with a full public release planned for December alongside iOS 27.3. The features include live translation integrated into Messages, FaceTime, and Phone, as well as AirPods support; writing tools for rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing text; visual intelligence for identifying objects and places through the iPhone camera; a clean-up tool in Photos to remove distracting objects; Genmoji for creating custom emoji from text descriptions; and smarter Mail, notification and Photos features.

Apple said it is partnering with Alibaba so that Chinese users can access Alibaba's Qwen model directly within Siri, writing tools, and visual intelligence, covering text and image understanding. Siri can call on Qwen's broader knowledge for certain requests, including answering questions about photos and documents, and a feature called Creation lets users have Qwen draft original content from scratch within the system-wide writing tools, after signing into a Qwen account or via Sign in with Apple.

Apple specified that supported devices include iPhone 16 and later, iPhone Duo, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPhone Air, with Siri and device language set to English and Simplified Chinese. The rollout does not include the more advanced Siri AI or other next-generation Apple Intelligence features announced at WWDC 2026.

Why it matters

It marks the real start of Apple's AI rollout in its largest overseas smartphone market, with Qwen integration shaping how Chinese users will experience Siri and on-device AI tools.

Source: Apple Newsroom (China)