Apple Intelligence is reportedly set to launch in mainland China in December as part of the iOS 27.3 update. The rollout would end a delay of more than a year in one of Apple’s most important markets, and it covers the iPhone, iPad and Mac.
The timing comes from a Bloomberg report by Mark Gurman, who cites people with knowledge of the matter. The company received preliminary approval in July, then held more talks with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology about clearance for a consumer launch.
The China version leaves out Siri AI and Image Playground
The first release will not include the new Siri AI assistant, which Apple rebuilt using Google Gemini models. It also skips the other features Apple announced this year, including photo expansion, an improved version of Writing Tools, upgraded Genmoji and a Siri mode for visual intelligence in the camera. Apple executives are reportedly not optimistic that Siri AI will reach China anytime soon.
Apple’s in-house image generation tools, including the Image Playground app, are also missing to comply with regulations. Some text generation features will be limited in certain apps.
What China gets is the original Apple Intelligence feature set that reached the US two years ago. That covers Genmoji, notification summaries, Writing Tools and the ability to remove specific items from photos. Many of those early features were widely panned for not working properly and for trailing rival offerings, so it is uncertain how Chinese buyers will react.
Alibaba and Baidu are part of how Apple won approval
Apple made concessions to win approval, and the China version uses guardrails developed with Alibaba, including a filter that lets the government approve ongoing updates to the AI models. Apple is also working with Baidu on features tied to search and Siri.
On September 29, Apple received Chinese permits allowing recent iPhones to support Apple Intelligence and Alibaba’s AI models, including Tongyi Wanxiang and Qwen. Tim Cook, now Apple’s executive chairman, also attended a White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping last month.
The path to this point has been slow. Apple once expected a release in May 2025, then at the end of 2025, then this past spring, while the Chinese government’s approval process kept the company in the dark. One of those slips is covered in our earlier report on the delay.
Rival phone makers in China already offer AI services on their devices
AI services are spreading across phones from Huawei Technologies, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and others in China. That leaves it unclear how much Apple gains from launching a two-year-old, relatively basic set of features.
The European Union is the other major region where Apple has struggled to roll out its latest features. Apple received clearance to launch most of the new capabilities there on schedule in September, but Siri AI is still missing on iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches. People with knowledge of the matter say it is unclear if or when Apple will get approval for a local release in the EU.
