❯ Apple plans to launch its first Apple Intelligence features in mainland China with iOS 27.3 in December

Basic features firstBloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is preparing to launch its first Apple Intelligence features in China in December. MacRumors, citing Bloomberg, says they will arrive with iOS 27.3, starting with basic features such as photo editing; Siri AI, Image Playground and the newer Genmoji are not included. Apple has not officially announced a launch date.

Working with Alibaba and BaiduApple Intelligence is the AI feature suite Apple introduced in iOS 18.1, and it has not been available in mainland China until now. MacRumors says Apple is working with Alibaba and Baidu in China, and that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has granted Apple network access permits to add Alibaba’s Qwen and Tongyi Wanxiang models to the iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and other models.

Local rivals got there firstiPhone users in mainland China will get Apple’s own AI features for the first time, though the first batch is limited and less complete than the international version. Huawei and other local brands have long offered AI features in China, and Apple will need later updates to catch up in the premium-phone AI experience.

▮ SIGNALIn China, the AI phone race is not about who releases a model first but who can safely build a local partner’s model into the system first.