Apple Intelligence Gets the Green Light in China
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Apple Intelligence has finally been approved by Chinese government regulators, paving the way for Apple’s new AI features to come to iPhones in the country for the first time, according to a Reuters report.
The publication says China’s Cyberspace Administration included Apple’s on-device generative AI service on a list of newly cleared providers earlier this week. That list also includes homegrown systems from Chinese phone makers.
While it may have received approval for use in China, Apple Intelligence in that country will differ from that available in other countries around the globe. An unnamed source told Reuters that Apple’s AI features in China will use models created by both Baidu and Alibaba. This aligns with a February 2025 report that said Alibaba was building the primary system with Baidu contributing on a smaller scale.
Alibaba confirmed its role in the arrangement, telling Reuters that Apple Intelligence in China will be powered by its Qwen model, including both text and image generation.
While no specific launch date has been announced for Apple Intelligence in China, government approval typically leads an actual rollout by a few months, meaning a Chinese rollout will likely occur around the same time as iOS 27 and the rest of Apple’s fall operating system updates arrive for the public.
Apple has experienced an impressive year-on-year increase in its China shipments in the second quarter. Preliminary figures released recently by research firm IDC show Apple’s iPhone shipments in China rose by 24.4% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2026, making it the fastest-growing smartphone brand in the Chinese smartphone market, which shrank overall.
Total smartphone shipments in China fell 4.3%, shipping roughly 66 million units. It was the fifth consecutive quarter of decline, with only Apple and Huawei as major vendors that saw improvement. (Huawei was up 19.4%.) Some of those increased sales could possibly be attributed to the looming approval of Apple Intelligence in the country. Actually bringing AI to iPhones in the country should help Apple sustain its sales momentum, although it has a long way to go to catch up with domestic rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi who have already added AI features to their handsets.
In March, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple had briefly enabled the new Apple Intelligence features for some Chinese users, months ahead of getting the green light. Some Chinese users began seeing Apple Intelligence features listed as available and active in the Settings app on their iPhones, although no formal announcement had been made. Gurman says that apparently its availability was a mistake.
A feedback form aimed at Chinese users also appeared on Apple’s site late last year as the company worked to gain approval. Customers could offer feedback on notification summaries, the Reduce Interruptions Focus mode, Writing Tools, the Photos Clean Up tool, Smart Replies in Mail and Messages, and summaries in Mail, priority Mail messages, Messages, Safari, and Call Recordings in the Notes app.
The form required a +86 telephone number for feedback to be submitted, indicating that the feedback form was targeting Apple users located in China, not simply those who speak Chinese. Apple removed the form from its Chinese website after a short time.
