Apple Picks Alibaba's Qwen for Apple Intelligence Launch in China
By Ana Maria Constantin · · TexaHub · LLMs & Foundation Models, AI in Industry, Regional Tech Ecosystems
Apple said on October 31 that Apple Intelligence will launch in China with iOS 27.3 in December, with Alibaba's Qwen model built into Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence. Developer testing starts November 4.
Qwen Inside Siri
Apple announced on October 31 that the first Apple Intelligence features will reach users in mainland China, and that it has partnered with Alibaba to add support for the Qwen model in parts of the system. Chinese users will be able to use Qwen directly in Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence, including for text and image understanding. [1]
Siri can hand certain requests to Qwen, and users can ask questions about photos and documents such as PDFs and presentations. Access requires signing in to a Qwen account or using Sign in with Apple, and Writing Tools can ask Qwen to compose original text. In other regions, that role is filled by ChatGPT. [1] [2]
Alibaba said users can choose whether to enable the integration and what information to share, and that it will not use user requests or generated responses to train its models. Alibaba Group chief executive Eddie Wu said Qwen would work with Apple on AI services for Chinese users. [3]
Wang Xiaojie, an AI expert at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told Xinhua it was the first time a leading global consumer hardware maker had used a Chinese large model as its main system-level AI backbone in the Chinese market. [3]
Timeline and Devices
The features enter testing in the iOS developer beta from November 4 and roll out publicly with iOS 27.3 in December. Other platforms will follow after the necessary approvals, Apple said. [1]
Apple's own generative models power the remaining features in the first wave, including Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime and Phone, Clean Up in Photos, Genmoji, mail summaries and priority notifications. Siri AI and the other next-generation features announced at WWDC 2026 are not included. [1]
The launch comes about two years after Apple Intelligence first became available in the United States. The features briefly went live in China in March before regulatory approval, according to The Next Web. [2]
Supported devices are the iPhone 16 and later, iPhone Duo, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone Air, with Siri and device language set to English or simplified Chinese. China's internet regulator completed the filing for Apple Intelligence in July, among seven on-device generative AI services for smartphones. [1] [3]
Sources
[1] Apple 智能即将登陆中国 (Apple Intelligence is coming to China) — Apple Newsroom (China)
[2] Apple confirms its AI features reach China in December, with Qwen — The Next Web
[3] Alibaba's Qwen AI model to integrate into Apple Intelligence in landmark partnership — CGTN / Xinhua