Apple Intelligence reaches China with iOS 27.3 in December, with Alibaba's Qwen inside Siri
Apple says its first Apple Intelligence features will launch in China with iOS 27.3 in December, with a developer beta from 4 November. Alibaba's Qwen model will work inside Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence. Siri AI and Apple's newest features are not included.
Apple says its first Apple Intelligence features will launch in China with iOS 27.3 in December, with Alibaba's Qwen model available inside Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence. The company announced the plan on Saturday, according to The Next Web. It confirms an earlier Bloomberg report.
Timeline and availability
Developers can test the features in the latest iOS beta from 4 November. All users get them with iOS 27.3 in December, about two years after Apple Intelligence first launched in the US.
The features work on the iPhone 15 Pro and newer models, including the iPhone Air and iPhone Duo. Siri and the phone must be set to English or simplified Chinese.
What is included
Apple says the following features run on its own models:
- Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime and Phone
- Writing Tools
- Visual Intelligence
- Clean Up photo tool
- Genmoji
- Summaries and priority sorting in Mail and notifications
Alibaba's Qwen model is the second layer. Users can tap it inside Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence, for example to ask about a photo or a PDF. Apple trained a China-only model with Alibaba's help. China's internet regulator cleared the setup in July.
What is left out
The China launch does not include Siri AI, the rebuilt assistant Apple showed at WWDC 2026, or Apple's other newest features. Siri AI added five languages this week but still skips mainland China. Users can still type to Siri, which Apple says now follows a conversation better.
The path to launch has not been smooth. In March, the features briefly went live in China before they were approved.
Specific Qwen model versions, context window and pricing were not part of Apple's announcement as reported.
What this means
The December release is a limited version of Apple Intelligence for China. It pairs Apple's own models with Alibaba's Qwen for assistant-style tasks such as asking about a photo or a PDF. The regulatory clearance in July and the brief March go-live before approval show that the approval step shaped the timing. For users, the gap is clear: Siri AI, the assistant Apple showed at WWDC 2026, is not part of this launch, and Siri AI still skips mainland China even after adding five languages this week.
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