Apple Intelligence heads to China in iOS 27.3, powered by Alibaba's Qwen

[Glenn84]

Apple's AI features are finally on their way to Chinese iPhone users. 9to5Mac reports that Apple has confirmed testing of Apple Intelligence in China will begin on 4 November in the next iOS developer beta, with a public release in December as part of iOS 27.3

The launch follows a long wait. Reports in July said Apple had reached an agreement with Chinese regulators, and in mid October Tim Cook was reported to have confirmed regulatory approval. Alibaba's Qwen model will handle certain requests and power Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence, letting users ask questions about photos and documents such as PDFs and presentations

Other features include an improved Siri with Type to Siri, Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime and Phone, Genmoji, Clean Up in Photos, natural language photo search, priority notifications and notification summaries. Using Qwen requires signing in to an account or using Sign in with Apple

The features will work on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, the iPhone 16 and later, iPhone Air and iPhone Duo, with Siri and the device language set to English or Simplified Chinese. The rollout is iPhone only at first, with other devices to follow once approvals are granted. The more advanced Siri AI remains unavailable in China for now

China is one of Apple's most important markets, and the lack of AI features has been a disadvantage against local rivals. Partnering with Alibaba was the practical way through regulation. It will be interesting to see whether Chinese users find the features compelling enough to upgrade

Will Apple Intelligence help Apple win back ground in China? And is partnering with local AI firms the future for global tech companies?

Apple confirms iOS 27.3 beta is coming next week with Apple Intelligence in China - 9to5Mac9to5mac.com

[Tabitha70]

Live Translation could be the most useful feature here. Business travellers between China and other countries would use it constantly. Simple features often matter more than flashy ones