Zhidx (WeChat Official Account: zhidxcom)
Author: Li Shuiqing
Editor: Xin Yuan
According to Zhidongxi on October 31, Alibaba has just announced its collaboration with Apple to integrate Qwen into Apple Intelligence. Chinese users can now directly leverage Qwen’s abilities—such as text and image comprehension, and content creation—within Siri, writing tools, and visual intelligence applications.
These features will enter beta testing beginning November 4, alongside the latest iOS Developer Beta, and will be officially rolled out to Chinese users when iOS 27.3 launches in December.
▲ Alibaba’s official WeChat account posted an announcement.
Earlier, on July 15, China’s Cyberspace Administration of China issued an announcement stating that Apple Intelligence, Apple’s generative AI service, had successfully completed registration. Since then, reports have continuously surfaced about Apple Intelligence incorporating Alibaba’s Qwen model. On October 15, Tim Cook appeared in Shanghai and confirmed that both Apple Intelligence and the related Alibaba Qwen large language model had received approval and would release test versions by the end of October.
Now, the integration collaboration between Apple’s AI for mainland China and Qwen has finally come to fruition.
Specifically, after the update, users can directly invoke Qwen’s vast knowledge through Siri and receive answers right within Siri; they can also pose questions to Qwen using their own selected documents and photos. Before any question, document, or image is sent to Qwen, Siri will first seek the user’s consent.
Qwen has also been integrated into Apple’s system-level writing tools, offering users the “Compose with Qwen” feature. “Compose with Qwen” helps users generate content based on various topics, and users can even use this feature to create images.
On the iPhone, users can gain deeper insights into their surroundings via visual intelligence features, including selecting “Ask Qwen” to identify what’s in front of them. Users can enable these visual intelligence functions through camera controls, action buttons, or the Control Center.
Users will be able to independently choose whether to activate Qwen integration. Once enabled, they can log in via Apple Sign-In or their own Qwen App account to access Qwen within Siri, writing tools, and visual intelligence features. Users can decide for themselves when to use Qwen and which information to share. All user requests and generated responses will not be used by Alibaba for model training, ensuring user privacy.
Currently, Qwen integration is available on iOS for users in China who have purchased an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence, or whose device location and Apple account country/region are both set to China.