Apple briefly published a support guide in China explaining how Mac users can connect Alibaba's Qwen AI to Siri and Writing Tools, before pulling it entirely less than a day later.
Reuters first spotted the Chinese-language guide on Apple's support site on August 8, which explained how eligible Mac users in mainland China could connect Qwen, Alibaba's family of generative AI models, to Siri and Writing Tools. According to the document, the extension required macOS 26.6 or later, needed users to sign into their own Qwen account, and specified that Alibaba was barred from using submitted materials to train or improve its models.
Siri would be able to lean on Qwen for more detailed responses to certain requests, including analysis of photos and documents, while Writing Tools could use it to generate text and images. No equivalent guide was published for the iPhone or iPad.
The setup closely mirrors Apple's existing ChatGPT extension available elsewhere, which similarly lets Siri hand off complex requests and gives Writing Tools a "Compose" option, all on an opt-in basis.
By August 9, the guide had been removed. Chinese news aggregator ReadHub reported that the guide had disappeared from Apple's site, and TechNode reports that Apple's customer service told Chinese media it had received no notification of a new feature launch. Separately, tech analyst Liu Dingding told the Global Times that the takedown could reflect pending technical adjustments still tied to the regulatory process, rather than a full reversal.
It's a similar pattern to what happened back in March, when Apple Intelligence itself briefly went live for some Chinese users before being pulled offline without regulatory approval. China maintains strict rules around releasing AI features, and in practice requires companies like Apple to partner with local providers. Apple originally lined up Baidu as its primary China AI partner, but by February 2025, reports indicated Alibaba had taken over as the lead partner after Baidu's models fell short of Apple's requirements, with Baidu shifted to a supporting role.
Chinese regulators cleared Apple Intelligence for launch in the country in July, registering Apple's on-device AI service with the Cyberspace Administration of China. That approval covered the iPhone only, and Apple did not say whether or when the iPad and Mac would follow, making this week's brief Mac-specific guide the clearest signal yet on the Mac timeline specifically.
It remains unclear when Apple will formally relaunch the Qwen integration for the Mac, or whether the guide's brief appearance points to an imminent rollout.
