Apple tests China iPhone AI from November 4

Apple will start testing its Apple Intelligence AI tools in China on the 4th of November 2026, Apple said on its Chinese news site. 9to5Mac and The Verge reported the plan.

The test is for app makers first. Ordinary iPhone users get the tools in December with the iOS 27.3 update, Apple said.

Alibaba's Qwen inside Siri

Alibaba's Qwen AI model will answer some requests in Siri, Apple's voice helper, 9to5Mac reported. It will also work in Writing Tools and in Visual Intelligence, which reads photos and documents.

Users choose whether to turn Qwen on and what to share, Xinhua reported. Alibaba said it will not use requests or answers to train its model.

What China gets first

The first set has about 18 features, Apple said in a statement cited by the South China Morning Post. They include live translation in calls, message summaries and photo clean up.

The newer Siri AI is left out for now, The Verge and 9to5Mac reported. The tools will work only on iPhone at first, Apple said.

Which phones work

The features need an iPhone 15 Pro, an iPhone 16 or a newer model, 9to5Mac reported. Siri and the phone must be set to English or Simplified Chinese.

Below we break down the dates

Apple announced the plan on the 30th of October. Testing starts on the 4th of November, 5 days later, by our arithmetic.

China's internet regulator cleared Apple Intelligence in July, Xinhua reported. That is about 5 months before the December release, by our arithmetic.

Key facts

Apple Intelligence tests start in China on the 4th of November 2026.

The public release comes with iOS 27.3 in December, Apple said.

Alibaba's Qwen works inside Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence.

The newer Siri AI is left out for now.

About 18 features come first, Apple said.