Apple China website documents Apple Intelligence integration with Alibaba Qwen
Apple updated its Chinese-language Mac user guide on August 8 with documentation showing Apple Intelligence can work with Alibaba Qwen models on macOS 26.6 or later.
On August 8, Apple updated its Simplified Chinese Mac user guide with a new support document confirming that Apple Intelligence can work with Alibaba Qwen models. The extension requires macOS 26.6 or later, a China-region device, an Apple account set to mainland China, and the user being physically in mainland China.
Users enable the feature through System Settings, then Apple Intelligence and Siri, then Extensions. The extension is deeply integrated with Writing Tools and Siri. In Notes, Mail, and other apps, users can call on Qwen for text drafting and rewriting. Siri can route requests through Qwen, including commands like ask Qwen to write a poem about dragons or ask Qwen to summarize this document. Siri determines whether Qwen can help and asks the user before sending any photos or files to Qwen.
The rollout had groundwork. On July 15, Chinese regulators added Apple Intelligence to the latest batch of on-device generative AI services that completed filing. Apple Technology Development (Shanghai) Co. had Apple Intelligence on file as of July 8, with mobile phones as the applicable scenario.
The collaboration traces back to February 13, 2025 at the World Governments Summit 2025 in Dubai, where Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai publicly confirmed the partnership. Alibaba has previously stated that Qwen will be integrated into Apple Intelligence to provide text and image understanding as well as content generation across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS for Chinese users.