Apple Intelligence gets approval in China: beta later in October, without the new Siri
Redacción IvokaOct 18, 12:00 PM 3 min
Tim Cook confirmed on October 15 that the first features — live translation, writing tools and photo cleanup — were approved. The redesigned Siri is not part of that first batch.
On October 15, in an interview in Shanghai, Tim Cook confirmed that Apple Intelligence has been approved in China and that a beta version will arrive later this month. It is a new step beyond what was already known about a December launch.
What the first batch includes
According to TechNode and Implicator, the first features are:
- Live Translation.
- Writing Tools.
- Clean Up for removing unwanted objects in photos.
The redesigned AI-powered Siri is not in this first batch. TechNode also reports that Cook said these features and the associated Alibaba Qwen models received regulatory approval.
Dates and conditions
- The beta arrives later in October.
- Implicator, citing people with knowledge of the matter, says Apple plans a consumer launch in December with iOS 27.3; Apple has not published an official date for China.
- According to Implicator, the guardrails built with Alibaba include a filter that lets the government approve updates to the models.
Why it matters outside China
For anyone selling or producing content in Latin America, this is context: it shows how one of the world's biggest companies adapts its AI to the rules of a huge market, with different features by country. It does not change what you can use today on your iPhone in Mexico.