Apple Intelligence is coming to China with Qwen

Apple is making the first Apple Intelligence features available to users in China. According to an announcement published in the company’s China newsroom dated October 31, 2026, the features can be tested with the iOS developer beta releasing on November 4, 2026. The public version will arrive in December with the official release of iOS 27.3. Apple says support for other platforms will be added once the necessary approvals are obtained.

Alibaba deal and Qwen support

The most notable part of the entry into the Chinese market is the deal with Alibaba. Apple is adding Alibaba’s Qwen model to certain Apple Intelligence experiences. This way, users in China will be able to use Qwen directly within Siri, Writing Tools, and Visual Intelligence; text and image understanding are included in this scope.

According to Apple, Siri can consult Qwen for some requests and draw on the model’s knowledge base. Users will also be able to ask questions about photos, PDFs, presentations, and other documents. Users can sign in with a Qwen account or use Sign in with Apple. Thanks to the generation feature in system-wide Writing Tools, Qwen will be able to generate content from scratch.

What features are in the first wave

The first package highlights tools for everyday use. Live Translation is integrated into the Messages, FaceTime, and Phone apps; face-to-face conversations can be translated in real time with AirPods 4 (with Active Noise Cancellation), AirPods Pro 2, and later models. Writing Tools can rewrite, correct, and summarize text. Visual Intelligence uses the iPhone camera to provide information about nearby objects and places.

In the Photos app, the Clean Up tool removes distracting objects from the frame, and Genmoji generates custom emojis from written descriptions. With natural language search, you can find a photo or video by describing it; a memory movie can also be created just by writing a description. In Mail, the Priority Messages inbox moves the most urgent emails to the top, summaries outline long threads, and Smart Reply suggests quick reply text for Mail and Messages.

There are changes on the notifications side too. Long or stacked notifications on the Lock Screen are summarized, Priority Notifications move urgent ones to the top, and the Reduce Interruptions focus mode only allows notifications that require immediate attention. The Notes app automatically generates transcript summaries of voice recordings, and can generate text summarizing key details from call transcripts.

Supported devices and language requirement

Siri has also been improved. With Type to Siri, requests can be entered from the keyboard; Apple says it correctly understands intent even if the user stumbles through the sentence, and context is preserved across consecutive conversations.

The first core features require iPhone 16 and later models, iPhone Duo, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPhone Air. Both Siri and the device language must be set to English or Simplified Chinese. For Live Translation on AirPods, AirPods 5, AirPods 4 (with Active Noise Cancellation), AirPods Pro 2 and later, or AirPods Max 2 must be running the latest software. Visual Intelligence can be used on all iPhone models that support Apple Intelligence. Apple notes that some features may only be available in certain languages and regions.

This announcement does not include the next-generation Apple Intelligence features and Siri AI introduced at WWDC 2026; the package coming to China is limited to the first-wave core tools.

Source: Unite.AI