Apple Intelligence reaches China: testing from 4 November, launch with iOS 27.3 in December

Key facts

Apple will release the first iOS 27.3 developer beta on 4 November, bringing the first Apple Intelligence features to iPhone in China.

The beta includes Writing Tools, Genmoji, Clean Up, notification summaries, priority notifications, Visual Intelligence and Live Translation with AirPods, but leaves out Siri AI and Image Playground.

iOS 27.3 will reach the public in December with Alibaba's Qwen assistant integrated in Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence.

Apple said on 30 October (31 October in China) that the first Apple Intelligence features are coming to iPhone users in China, opening for testing with the latest iOS developer beta from 4 November and launching publicly with iOS 27.3 in December. Apple did not give a December date. The announcement came in a press release on Apple’s China Newsroom; 4 November is likely 3 November in the US because of time zones.

The launch covers Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime and Phone, Writing Tools, Visual Intelligence, Clean Up in Photos, Genmoji, natural-language photo search, priority notifications, notification summaries and Smart Reply in Mail and Messages. Type to Siri is included. Apple’s newer Siri AI is not part of it, and Image Playground does not appear in Apple’s feature list.

Apple has partnered with Alibaba so that Chinese users can reach Qwen directly from Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence, including for questions about photos and documents such as PDFs and presentations. Users sign in with a Qwen account or with Sign in with Apple, and Qwen can also create original text from scratch in Writing Tools.

The announcement follows iOS 27.2, released on 26 October, which expanded Siri AI to more languages but said nothing on China.

Key facts

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