On the morning of March 31, 2026, Apple commenced a phased rollout of the Apple Intelligence Beta version to iPhone users in China who had upgraded their devices to iOS 26.4 or a later version. Upon accessing system settings, users noticed that Siri had been rebranded as 'Apple Intelligence and Siri'. Once Apple Intelligence was activated, the system automatically downloaded an on-device model of roughly 9.5GB. Subsequently, users could explore a range of new features, including an updated Siri interface, real-time translation capabilities, visual intelligence, photo erasure functionality, collaboration tools, Smart Emoji, and the Image Playground.

However, it was observed that certain features did not activate as expected, and the GPT extension was, for the time being, inaccessible. Furthermore, iPhone 16 models and subsequent releases in China, which had Apple Intelligence enabled, could directly access visual recognition AI via the camera control button, offering a seamless integration of advanced AI functionalities into the user experience.