A phased start in China
Apple announced on its Chinese newsroom site that it will bring Apple Intelligence to China with iOS 27.3. The features will first be tested in an iOS 27.3 beta starting November 4, with the full release planned for December.
No new Siri
The China release does not include Apple's new Siri AI. Instead, the company is rolling out earlier Apple Intelligence features: notification summaries, real-time translation, rewriting and proofreading tools, visual intelligence, and object removal from photos.
Alibaba partnership
Apple said it worked with Alibaba to add support for its Qwen model, reflecting the need for a local model provider under China's regulations.
Why it matters
China is one of Apple's largest markets, and bringing AI features there is key to staying competitive. The absence of the new Siri shows the China feature set will differ from the global version.
