Apple to launch Apple Intelligence in China in December with iOS 27.3

Apple has announced on its Chinese Newsroom website that it will launch its initial set of Apple Intelligence features in China in December with the official release of iOS 27.3. Testing of the features will begin on 4 November as part of the next iOS developer beta. In mid-July, Reuters reported that Apple Intelligence had cleared a major regulatory hurdle in the country following multiple delays, while China's state-backed media outlet The Paper later reported that Tim Cook had confirmed regulatory approval for the platform.

As part of the rollout, Apple has partnered with Alibaba to add support for Qwen in select Apple Intelligence experiences. Users in China will be able to access Alibaba's Qwen directly in Siri, Writing Tools, and Visual Intelligence, including for text and image understanding features. According to Apple, users can generate original content from scratch through Writing Tools and ask questions about photos and documents, including PDFs and presentations, by signing into their Qwen accounts or using Sign in with Apple.

The initial release includes Writing Tools for rewriting, proofreading, and summarising, Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone, Clean Up and natural-language searches in Photos, Genmoji, Visual Intelligence, Smart Reply, priority email and notification summaries, Priority Notifications, audio transcription summaries in Notes, and Type to Siri. However, the update excludes Image Playground, as well as Siri AI and other next-generation Apple Intelligence features announced at WWDC 2026.

At launch, the features will be exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16 and later, iPhone Air, and iPhone Duo, with both Siri and the device language set to English or Simplified Chinese. Live Translation via AirPods is supported on AirPods 5, AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, AirPods Pro 2 and later, and AirPods Max 2 when updated to the latest firmware and paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone.

Following the start of developer beta testing on 4 November and the public release of iOS 27.3 in December, Apple stated that support for other platforms will launch in China once the necessary regulatory approvals have been obtained.

Sources: Apple, The Verge, MacRumors, 9to5Mac

Written with AI and fact-checked against the linked sources by an automated AI review before publication. Spotted an error? See our Corrections Policy.