Apple confirms Qwen support in China as iOS 27.3 beta arrives November 4

Apple has confirmed that Alibaba’s Qwen AI assistant will be integrated into Apple Intelligence in China, with the first developer beta supporting the new features arriving on November 4.

In its China Newsroom announcement, Apple said Qwen will be available across selected Apple Intelligence experiences, including Siri, Writing Tools, and Visual Intelligence. The integration will support both text and image understanding.

Apple says Siri will be able to hand certain requests to Qwen for broader knowledge, while users will also be able to ask questions about photos and documents including PDFs and presentations. Qwen will also be available inside Writing Tools to generate original content from scratch.

Users will be able to access Qwen by signing in with a Qwen account or by using Sign in with Apple. Apple says the integration is designed specifically for users in China as part of its local Apple Intelligence rollout.

The company also confirmed that testing begins with its latest iOS developer beta on November 4. Apple says the China rollout will then become publicly available with iOS 27.3 in December. This is the same release that will bring the first core Apple Intelligence features to supported iPhones in China. The Apple Post has more on the wider Apple Intelligence rollout in China here.

Apple has not included Siri AI or the other next-generation Apple Intelligence features announced at WWDC 2026 in this initial rollout. Instead, the first release focuses on features including Live Translation, Writing Tools, Clean Up, Genmoji, Priority Mail, notification summaries, and Type to Siri.

Apple says the initial China rollout will support iPhone 16 and later, iPhone Duo, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPhone Air, with Siri and device language set to English and Simplified Chinese. Support for other Apple platforms will follow after the necessary regulatory approvals are received.