Apple confirms Alibaba’s Qwen will power its AI tools in China from December
Apple has confirmed that its AI tools are finally coming to iPhone users in mainland China, powered in part by Alibaba’s Qwen. Apple said in a China Newsroom announcement on Saturday 31 October that testing would begin on 4 November in the latest iOS developer beta, with the features reaching the public in December as part of iOS 27.3.
Qwen will be built into selected Apple Intelligence features. Users in China will reach it through Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence, asking questions about photos and documents such as PDFs and presentations. A “Compose with Qwen” option in Writing Tools will create original text and images from a prompt, and Siri will hand some requests to Qwen to answer directly.
Apple said users would be asked for permission before anything was sent to Qwen, and could switch the integration off. They can sign in with a Qwen account or Sign in with Apple. Alibaba said requests and responses sent through the integration would not be used to train its models.
The first rollout will also include Live Translation, Writing Tools, Visual Intelligence, Clean Up in Photos, Genmoji, photo search and email summaries. It will work on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, iPhone 16 models and later, the iPhone Air and the iPhone Duo, with device and Siri set to English or Simplified Chinese.
Why it matters
Apple Intelligence has been unavailable in mainland China since its 2024 introduction, because of local regulatory requirements. The delay left Chinese iPhone owners without AI features that users elsewhere have had for more than two years. Registration of Apple’s on-device AI service by China’s cyberspace regulator in July cleared a key hurdle, and the Alibaba partnership, confirmed in February 2025, is the local piece that makes the launch possible.
The launch is only a partial one, however. Apple said the more advanced Siri AI and other next-generation features announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference this year would not be included. Chinese users will get the earlier generation of Apple’s AI tools, with Qwen standing in for ChatGPT.
What happens next
Developers in China get the first test version on 4 November, and the public release is due in December with iOS 27.3, although Apple has not given an exact date. Support for iPads and Macs should follow once the necessary approvals are obtained.
This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.
Sources
- https://www.theapplepost.com/2026/10/31/73757/apple-intelligence-finally-coming-to-china-in-december-with-ios-27-3/ (The Apple Post, 31 October 2026)
- https://mcigroup.my/mci-business/qwen-powered-apple-ai-to-launch-in-china-in-december/ (MCI Group, 31 October 2026)
- https://www.theapplepost.com/2026/10/31/73758/apple-confirms-qwen-support-in-china-as-ios-27-3-beta-arrives-november-4/ (The Apple Post, 31 October 2026)
