Apple China's official website announced: The first batch of Apple Intelligence features will begin beta testing with the iOS 27.3 Developer Beta starting 11 4, and the official iOS 27.3 release will be available to Chinese users in 12. Features include real-time translation, Writing Tools, Visual Intelligence, Clean Up in Photos, Genmoji, Mail and Notification Summaries, Priority Mail, Call and Voice Memo Transcription Summaries, and typing to Siri. Apple has partnered with Alibaba to integrate Qwen into Siri, Writing Tools, and Visual Intelligence to handle certain requests and image-text understanding; Writing Tools can also use Qwen to generate content from scratch.
Confidence: High (100) · Event time 2026-10-30
Reasoning
- Apple Intelligence has not been available in mainland China since its launch in 2024; this is the first time a specific timeline has been provided. According to The Verge, Apple Intelligence received approval in China in 7, and Reuters reported in 8 that Apple trained a large model specifically for China; the official press release states that these features are powered by Apple's own generative models.
- Qwen plays a role in China similar to ChatGPT in the international version of iOS: users can access it in Siri, Writing Tools, and Visual Intelligence by signing in to a Qwen account or using "Sign in with Apple," and can also ask questions about photos, PDFs, and presentations.
Usage
- Supported devices: iPhone 16 and later, iPhone Duo, iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max, and iPhone Air; Apple specifies that Siri and the device language must be set to English and Chinese (Simplified). To try it early, install the iOS 27.3 Developer Beta from 11 4; general users should wait for the official release in 12. Using AirPods for face-to-face real-time translation requires AirPods 4 (Active Noise Cancellation model), AirPods Pro 2 and later, AirPods 5, or AirPods Max 2.
Risks
- This release does not include the new Siri AI or the next-generation Apple Intelligence features announced at WWDC 2026; other platforms such as Mac and iPad will wait "until necessary approvals are obtained," with no timeline provided.
- The press release does not specify which requests Qwen handles or how data is transferred between Apple and Alibaba.
- Automated collection mistakenly labeled this item as "unrelated to AI"; this entry was manually included by an editor.