Apple Intelligence reaches China in iOS 27.3, but without Siri AI
Testing starts November 4 and iOS 27.3 ships in December, iPhone only, with Alibaba's Qwen built into Siri.
Apple · Macfolio · 31 October 2026
Apple announced on its China Newsroom on October 31, 2026 (Beijing time) that the first core Apple Intelligence features are coming to iPhone users in mainland China. Testing starts on November 4 with the latest iOS developer beta, and Apple says the features will reach users in China with the public release of iOS 27.3 in December. Apple did not give a December date.
What users in China get
The first wave is the older Apple Intelligence feature set, not the newest one. Apple lists:
- Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime and Phone, plus in-person translation with supported AirPods
- Writing Tools, Visual Intelligence, Clean Up and natural-language search in Photos
- Genmoji, Memory movies, Priority Messages and summaries in Mail, and Smart Reply
- Notification summaries, Prioritize Notifications, the Reduce Interruptions Focus, and summaries of Notes audio recordings and call transcripts
- Type to Siri and a more conversational Siri, with Alibaba's Qwen available inside Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence
Users reach Qwen by signing in to a Qwen account or with Sign in with Apple. Apple says the update does not include Siri AI or the other next-generation Apple Intelligence features it announced at WWDC 2026.
Requirements and limits
Supported models are iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, the iPhone 16 family and later, iPhone Air and iPhone Duo. Siri and the device language must be set to Simplified Chinese or English. Live Translation through AirPods needs AirPods 5, AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, AirPods Pro 2 or later, or AirPods Max 2 on current firmware. Apple says support for other platforms will follow only after it receives the necessary approvals, so Macs and iPads in China get nothing yet.
This does not mean Siri AI is coming to China in iOS 27.3, and it is not a Mac release.
Our take: after two years of delays, a dated beta and a December target are real progress, but China gets a narrower, partner-dependent version of Apple Intelligence, and teams with staff in China should plan around iPhone-only availability for now.
Caveats: Apple gave November 4 as the start of testing in China, which may land on November 3 in U.S. time zones. Feature availability can still change during the beta.