Apple Intelligence to launch in China in December with Alibaba's Qwen, developer testing from 4 November

Apple says its Apple Intelligence features will launch for iPhone users in mainland China in December, with Alibaba’s Qwen artificial intelligence model built into parts of the system.

In a statement on Saturday 31 October, Apple said developers would be able to test the first China features in an iOS developer beta starting on Wednesday 4 November, before a wider release with the iOS 27.3 update in December, the South China Morning Post and TechNode reported.

According to TechNode, Qwen will be integrated into Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence, letting users ask Qwen questions about text, images and documents within Apple’s system features. Users will be able to sign in with a Qwen account or with Sign in with Apple, and Writing Tools will also be able to generate original content through Qwen.

The South China Morning Post said the first batch includes around 18 features, among them writing tools for summarising and proofreading, live translation for phone calls and messages, and visual intelligence through the camera controls. TechNode reported that the rollout also includes photo clean-up, Genmoji, natural-language photo search and summaries of messages, notifications and recorded conversations. Apple said support for other Apple platforms would follow after the necessary approvals, according to TechNode.

The SCMP described China as Apple’s second-largest market and said the launch follows about two years of regulatory uncertainty over bringing Apple Intelligence to the country.