Qwen stays optional in the China test

At 05:02 Beijing time on 31 October 2026, ITHome published the Apple-side account. Apple said that day that the first Apple Intelligence features were about to reach China, in cooperation with Alibaba, with Qwen used in some of the experiences. The report calls this the first substantial arrival of the China version since Apple Intelligence was introduced in 2024. Testing starts on 4 November with the latest iOS developer beta. The public China release is tied to iOS 27.3 in December. The same article says support for other platforms waits until the necessary approvals. A second ITHome article at 07:09 describes the announcement as having come in the early hours of 31 October. The dates and the two-step schedule match.

The 07:09 article rests on a notice Alibaba published alongside the announcement. The switch is optional. A person can choose whether to turn the Qwen integration on. After it is on, sign-in can be with Apple or with a Qwen app account, and Qwen can be used in Siri, writing tools, and visual intelligence. Before any question, document, or image is sent to Qwen, consent comes first. The person decides when to use Qwen and what to share. Requests and the replies that are generated are not used by Alibaba for model training. For now the integration is on iOS, for iPhone users who bought a supported device in China, or whose device region and Apple Account country or region are both set to China.

Both articles name Siri, writing tools, and visual intelligence as the places Qwen can be called. On the Alibaba side, Siri can call Qwen's knowledge and answer inside Siri, and a person can also ask about documents and photos they chose. Writing tools include Compose with Qwen, which can generate text on a topic and can generate images. Visual intelligence includes an Ask Qwen option for what is in front of the camera, reached from the camera control, the action button, or Control Center. The Apple-side feature list adds that, for particular requests, Siri can reach Qwen. The same article's caution is that this update does not include Siri AI, and does not include the other Apple Intelligence features announced at WWDC 2026. Both sentences are in the article. The article does not define the line between Siri AI and calling Qwen.

The Apple-side list is more specific about the first batch. Live translation sits in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone. AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation, and AirPods Pro 2 and later models, can translate a face-to-face conversation. Writing tools cover rewrite, proofread, and summary. Visual intelligence uses the camera to identify objects and places. The Clean Up tool in Photos removes distractions. Genmoji makes an emoji from a text description. Photos can be searched by a description, and a memory movie can be made from a description. Mail and notifications include priority mail, summaries, smart reply, notification summaries, and priority notifications. Audio transcripts in Notes, and call transcripts, can be summarized. Those are names on a feature list, not a measurement that the China build is already open.

Both pieces are ITHome's retelling. The Apple newsroom page and Alibaba's own notice are not the links here. A full device list, the developer-beta build number, and which approval the phrase about other platforms refers to are not in the articles. Alibaba had earlier confirmed that the integration would extend to iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS. That is an earlier confirmation, not a new timetable dated 31 October. The 16 October interview about filings and a test build is not in the body of these two articles.