Level 1 — Absolute Beginner

Apple Intelligence is the name of Apple's smart helper on the iPhone. It can write, translate and answer questions.

People in most countries got it two years ago. People in China did not get it. The rules there are different.

Now that is changing. From Tuesday, app makers in China can try it. Everyone else can use it in December.

In China the helper uses a model from a Chinese company called Alibaba. It is not the same model Apple uses in other countries.

smart

Able to think or work in a clever way.

helper

Something or someone that helps you.

translate

To change words from one language into another.

country

A land with its own government, like Japan or Brazil.

rules

Things you must or must not do.

app

A small program on a phone or computer.

model

Here, the computer program that makes the smart helper work.

company

A business that makes or sells things.

Level 2 — Elementary

Apple first showed Apple Intelligence in 2024 and released it around the world that autumn. Mainland China was left out, and Apple said the reason was regulation. Two years later, Chinese iPhone owners are finally getting it.

Apple announced on 31 October that registered developers in mainland China can turn the features on from Tuesday 4 November. A public release will follow in December with iOS 27.3. The phone's language and the Siri language must be set to English or Simplified Chinese.

The Chinese version is different in an important way. Instead of Apple's own system, it uses Tongyi Qianwen, a model built by the Chinese company Alibaba. Apple and Alibaba first agreed to work together in February 2025, and China's internet regulator published a registration notice for the service in July 2026.

Not everything is included. Users will get live translation in Messages, FaceTime and phone calls, writing tools, photo editing features and summaries of notifications. The rebuilt version of Siri shown at Apple's developer conference is not part of the approval, and neither are the iPad, the Mac or the Vision Pro.

release

To make a product available to the public.

regulation

Official rules made by a government.

developer

A person who writes software.

feature

One of the things a product can do.

regulator

A government body that checks companies follow the rules.

approval

Official permission for something to happen.

notification

A short message a phone shows you.

summary

A short version that gives only the main points.

Level 3 — Intermediate

Apple Intelligence shipped globally with iOS 18.1 in the autumn of 2024, and mainland China was excluded from the first day, with Apple pointing only to regulatory requirements. On 31 October the company set the dates for finally closing that gap: registered developers in mainland China can enable the features from Tuesday 4 November, and a public release follows in December alongside iOS 27.3.

The route to approval was long and institutional. Apple reached its first agreement with Alibaba in February 2025. The Cyberspace Administration of China published a registration notice in July 2026, listing Alibaba and Baidu as technology partners, and the industry ministry granted the necessary network access permits at the end of September. The result is a product that looks like Apple Intelligence but does not run on Apple's own model: the language work is handled by Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen, and the specific version in use has not been made public.

The feature list is substantial but trimmed. Chinese users will get live translation across Messages, FaceTime and phone calls, including in-ear translation on recent AirPods; writing tools able to answer questions about documents and presentations; Visual Intelligence; the Clean Up editor, Genmoji, memory movies and natural language search in Photos; priority messages, summaries and smart replies in Mail and Messages; notification summaries; audio transcription in Notes; and Type to Siri. Absent are the rebuilt Siri unveiled at this year's developer conference, the new Image Playground, and any support for iPad, Mac or Vision Pro, because the approval covers the iPhone alone.

Two details deserve attention. According to reports Apple had to pass a government safety assessment covering roughly two thousand prohibited categories, with the model required to refuse the great majority of prompts on those topics, and the test is refreshed monthly. Queries that overflow the device are reported to go to Alibaba's own cloud rather than Apple's Private Cloud Compute, with Alibaba stating that the data will not be used for model training, advertising or behavioural tracking. The commercial stakes are plain: Greater China accounts for roughly 18 percent of Apple's annual revenue, and Apple has spent two years watching domestic rivals sell phones whose assistants already worked.

ship

In technology, to release a product to users.

exclude

To leave someone or something out.

institutional

Involving official bodies and formal procedures.

permit

An official document that allows something.

trimmed

Reduced, with parts cut away.

transcription

Writing down what was spoken.

prompt

The text a person types to ask an AI system something.

overflow

Here, work that is too large for the device and must be sent elsewhere.

Level 4 — Advanced

Apple's arrival in China with a working assistant is a study in what a company will concede to keep a market. Apple Intelligence shipped worldwide with iOS 18.1 in late 2024; mainland China was left out from the first day, and Apple said only that regulatory requirements were responsible. On 31 October the company named the dates that end the exclusion: a developer beta from Tuesday 4 November, a public release in December with iOS 27.3. The intervening period cost Apple two Chinese product cycles in which domestic handsets advertised assistants that already worked.

The architecture of the compromise is the story. The product carries Apple's name but not Apple's model: language work runs on Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen, under an arrangement first struck in February 2025, and the specific model version has not been disclosed. The Cyberspace Administration of China published a registration notice in July 2026 naming Alibaba and Baidu as technology partners, reportedly the first such approval for AI models built into smartphones, and the industry ministry issued network access permits in late September. Reports indicate Apple had to clear a safety assessment spanning some two thousand prohibited categories, with a required refusal rate on those prompts and a monthly retest, applied at the model's output layer rather than patched on afterwards.

The privacy story bends further. Apple has built its recent marketing on Private Cloud Compute, the claim that queries too heavy for the handset are processed on hardware nobody, including Apple, can inspect. In China, according to reports, overflow queries go instead to Alibaba's ordinary cloud infrastructure. Alibaba says the data will not be used for model training, advertising or behavioural tracking, and Alibaba's chief executive Eddie Wu framed the deal as Qianwen drawing on the company's AI expertise to integrate into Apple's ecosystem. Whether a commercial undertaking of that kind sits comfortably beside China's own data and intelligence statutes is the question Apple's critics in Washington have been asking since 2025, and it is not one a press release settles.

What ships in December is therefore both substantial and conspicuously partial: live translation across Messages, FaceTime, calls and AirPods, Qianwen-powered writing tools that can interrogate documents, Visual Intelligence, the Photos editing suite, mail and message triage, notification summaries, Notes transcription and Type to Siri, but not the rebuilt Siri shown at this year's developer conference, not Image Playground, and nothing at all for iPad, Mac or Vision Pro. With Greater China supplying roughly 18 percent of annual revenue, and iPhone shipments there reported up more than 24 percent year on year in the second quarter against a shrinking market, the calculation is easy to follow even where the concessions are uncomfortable.

concede

To give up something, often reluctantly, in order to gain something else.

architecture

The overall design and structure of a system.