On September 10, 2024, with the release of the iPhone 16 series, Apple China’s official website carried the slogan “Ready for Apple Smart”. Who would have thought that this “preparation” would take a full 785 days. Now, the long-awaited National Bank Apple smart phone finally meets everyone today.
According to the arrangements announced by Apple, the first batch of core functions will be open for testing in the latest iOS 27.3 developer preview version starting today, and are planned to be launched with the official version of iOS 27.3 in December. The first batch of features will be enabled on iPhone first, including writing tools, photo erasure and real-time translation. At the same time, Siri will also be officially connected to Qianwen and Baidu, bringing more powerful answering capabilities.
However, what passed the approval this time was the first version of Apple’s smart phone using the “marquee” Siri interface. The Smart Island liquid glass interface unveiled at WWDC 2026, as well as the next generation Apple smart and Siri AI functions, are not within the scope of this test.
But no matter what, the long wait finally came to an end. Therefore, we also updated the iOS 27.3 beta version as soon as possible to see how they work.
What devices can be used?
This time, the Apple Smart Beta is only open on iPhone. Supported models include iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and all iPhones launched after iPhone 16, including iPhone 16e and iPhone 17e. As for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, they are still not available this time because they are only equipped with 6 GB of memory. Other devices such as iPad and Mac are not supported yet and need to wait for the corresponding approval.
If an iPhone that meets the model requirements wants to turn on the National Bank version of Apple Smart, it only needs to meet any of the following conditions:
- Use a National Bank device, that is, a device whose last three characters in “Model” are “CH/A” in “Settings > General > About This Machine”;
- When using an overseas version device, the country or region of the Apple account logged in is mainland China, which is also commonly known as the “national ID”;
- Use an overseas version of the device, do not log in to your Apple account, and the device is located in mainland China.
After meeting the above conditions and updating to the iOS 27.3 developer preview, the original “Siri” in the settings will become “Apple Smart and Siri”. After entering, click “Open Apple Smart” below and you will see the button to get Apple Smart.
According to Apple, you need to download up to 7GB of Apple Smart Support content. After the download is complete, you also need to wait for Siri to be upgraded and enabled. The time required is not fixed. Fortunately, there is no waiting list this time, so you don’t have to queue up to wait for open qualifications.
Taking my iPhone Air as an example, before the update, iOS and system data occupied 17.01 GB and 27.14 GB respectively. After updating to the iOS 27.3 beta version and turning on Apple Smart, the two became 22.69 GB and 31.59 GB respectively, of which Apple Smart occupied 5.92 GB.
Siri marquee and third-party model integration
The most intuitive change in Apple’s intelligence this time is the “marquee” effect when calling out Siri. However, in addition to long-pressing the side button to interact with Siri using voice, you can also double-click the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen and type directly to talk to it.
In terms of models, the National Bank’s Apple smart phone only has local models, which are used for tasks such as basic Siri functions, photo elimination, and real-time translation. As for more complex requests that cannot be handled by the client-side model, the question and context will be sent to Alibaba’s Qianwen model for processing.
However, the Qianwen extension is not enabled by default and needs to be enabled manually. You can activate it by going to “Settings > Apple Smart and Siri”, clicking “Qianwen” in the “Extensions” below, then clicking “Use Qianwen” and completing the account login according to the prompts on the pop-up page. In addition to using your mobile phone number to log in to your existing Qianwen account, you can also choose “Log in with Apple” to hide your email.
Once enabled, with Apple’s intelligent ability to recognize screen content, you can directly use Siri to ask Qianwen questions about the photos, PDFs or presentations displayed on the screen, and continue the conversation.
The history of conversations with Qianwen through Siri can also be viewed in the Qianwen App logged in with the same account. In addition, Qianwen will also appear in the visual intelligence and writing tools to be introduced later, used to understand pictures, answer questions, and create pictures and texts.
As for when the data will be sent to Qianwen, Apple said that user consent is required before each request is sent. In my test, every time Siri needs to call Qianwen Answer, it will indeed ask for permission first, and only send data after getting permission. Apple also stated that the data sent to Qianwen via Siri will not be used for model training, marketing advertising or user tracking.
In addition to Qianwen, the National Bank’s Apple Intelligence has also cooperated with Baidu, but it is currently limited to image search and is not responsible for Siri’s questions and answers.
In short, with the addition of large models, Siri is finally no longer the cute robot that always tells you “I found the following information on the Internet.” Language understanding has also been greatly improved. It can better understand pauses and corrections when speaking, and it can also handle continuous questions in context. For example, if you realize that you have made a mistake in telling the time during a sentence, you can correct it directly without having to cancel the conversation and say it again from the beginning.
writing tools
In our daily life, we always have to deal with words. Writing reports to your boss, replying to messages from different people, or looking at a large section of material and not wanting to read it from the beginning can all be handled through writing tools.
As long as the app uses the text selection menu that comes with the iOS system, including third-party apps and websites, after selecting the text, click the Apple smart icon in the pop-up menu to use the writing tool. However, apps like “Small and Beautiful” that have rewritten their own menus cannot be used for the time being.
For text content that cannot be selected, you can also select the text on the screen by taking a screenshot of OCR and then call it.
The most basic function of a writing tool is “proofreading”. It checks sentences for wording, grammar, or typos and highlights suggested changes. For example, “de”, “di” and “de” that have troubled countless people can be corrected with one click.
After modification, you can also view what has been modified and why it has been modified. Of course, AI uses a more standard and formal grammar, and it may also feel that you have made a mistake for some playful and playful writing methods. therefore. If you are not satisfied with the result of AI rewriting, you can keep the original writing.
If you want to express the same meaning in another way, you can use the “Rewrite” function. How should I put it? This function is very similar to the key question type in my junior high school English exam “Explanation of Sentences”, which is the conversion of synonymous sentences. (If you were a junior high school student in Shenzhen around 2010, you should be deeply impressed by it.) When rewriting, Apple smart will understand the meaning of the original sentence and write it in another way of expression.
In addition, you can also choose between “friendly”, “formal” and “concise” tones, and adjust the wording according to the usage situation. For example, the information you want to convey to Party A and Party B may be the same, but the wording may require more careful consideration – the copy sent to Party A can be sent to Party B, but the copy sent to Party B may not be sent directly to Party A.
If none of the previous rewrites meet your needs, or you need to write a new piece of content from scratch, you can also use the “Create” function. Slide the writing tool panel up and click “Create” to enter free creation mode. Enter your creative requirements in the input box, and Apple Smart will call Qianwen to create according to your requirements.
In addition, the writing tool also provides a summary function, which can condense and summarize long content into four forms: summary, bullet points, list and table. When you encounter some content that is too wordy (such as the pie that your boss drew during a meeting), you can let it be sorted out first and get to the key points at a glance.or find that there is no focus。
In general, Apple’s intelligent writing tools mostly use end-side models. Although their capabilities are limited, it is still much more convenient to simply handle small daily needs than using third-party AI applications.
visual intelligence
Visual intelligence is also one of the core functions of this Apple smart phone. For iPhones equipped with a camera control button, just press and hold the button to activate visual intelligence; if you are using an iPhone 15 Pro series without a camera control button, you need to add the “Visual Intelligence” button to the control center first, and then enter it through the control center.
After activating visual intelligence, point the lens at the object you want to identify, press the camera control button or the shooting key on the screen to freeze the current scene, and select “Ask” or “Search”.
Click “Ask” on the left, and the system will send the picture to Qianwen, who will generate an answer based on the content of the picture and your question. Additionally, you can continue to ask questions after getting an answer. In my opinion, this function is especially useful when traveling abroad. For example, if you see an introduction to an exhibit you like in a museum, you only need to point the camera at it to recognize the text and further inquire about the specific content.
The “Search” on the right will send the frozen picture to Baidu Image Recognition to find relevant results based on the picture content. If there are multiple objects in the screen, you can also specify the object you want to search by circling.
In addition to recognizing objects, visual intelligence can also directly process text in the picture. For example, when a large section of text appears on the screen, visual intelligence can identify the content and directly generate a summary, eliminating the need for manual copying and pasting.
Image processing
I believe many people have had this experience: tens of thousands of photos are stored in their mobile phones, but when they want to find one of them, they can’t find it. I clearly remember the scene in the photo, but I can’t remember exactly when it was taken. I can only rummage through the gallery one by one.
With the arrival of Apple’s smart phones, we can finally use natural language search in the iOS Photos App.
However, in actual experience, the accuracy of this function has not met my expectations. For example, I directly searched for “photos of sunrise at the seaside”, and the system could indeed find the corresponding picture based on the description. However, when faced with more complex descriptions, the search results were not so ideal. Sometimes irrelevant photos appeared, and sometimes there were photos that met the conditions, but they did not appear in the results.
Considering that my photo library is still in the analysis stage, it may be necessary to wait for the system to complete the analysis before further judging the actual performance of this function.
In addition to searching for photos, Apple’s smart phone also allows the “Memories” in the Photos App to be customized. In the past, memory videos were mainly automatically generated by the system, and the content that users could decide was relatively limited. Now, just enter a natural language description, and the system will select qualified photos and videos from the gallery based on the theme, and organize these materials into a narrative memory video.
Besides these functions, what I am most looking forward to is the “elimination” in photos.
This feature is driven by an on-device model and can be used even without an internet connection. After turning on Apple Smart, enter the photo editing interface, wait for the download to complete, and you will see the “Delete” option. Just tap, smudge, or circle to remove objects you don’t want to keep in the frame.
However, expectations are expectations, and the actual results vary.
In my experience, if the background of the photo is relatively clean, the picture information is relatively simple, or the elimination area is small, the effect after elimination is usually quite natural, and it is difficult to find obvious traces of processing without looking carefully.
However, if the background contains a large number of complex textures, or the objects that need to be removed block a large area of the picture, the filled content can easily be revealed, or even cause obvious errors.
Finally, Apple Smart also brings a feature that is more interesting and personalized expression-Smart Emoticons.
Open any conversation in the messaging app and click the “+” sign on the left to find the entrance to Zhihui emoticons. You can choose the suggestions provided by the system, or you can directly describe the desired expression in natural language. You can even use friends and relatives in the photo gallery as prototypes, with different hairstyles, expressions and styles to add some personalized expression to daily chats.
The specific generated effects are relatively average in my opinion, but fortunately Apple will provide several options so you can try more.
real-time translation
Real-time translation may be one of the most important features in this Apple smart update. Like “Eliminate” in the photo, it is also driven by Apple’s device-side model. After downloading the required model and language in advance, it can be used even without a network.
Although the language support range of Apple smart devices and Siri this time includes Simplified Chinese and English, the languages supported by real-time translation are more abundant. In addition to Chinese and English, it also covers French, Japanese, German, Spanish and other languages. Real-time translation supports messages, phone calls, FaceTime, and in-person communication via AirPods.
In the messaging app, users can directly translate the conversation content; when using FaceTime video calls, the translation results will appear on the screen in the form of subtitles; on ordinary phone calls, the system will play the translated content through voice, allowing both parties who speak different languages to communicate smoothly. If it’s a face-to-face communication, real-time translation can also directly translate what the other party says into your own language and play it through AirPods, eliminating the need to check the translation on your phone.
Currently, face-to-face AirPods real-time translation supports AirPods 5, AirPods 4 (active noise cancellation), AirPods Pro 2 and subsequent models, and AirPods Max 2 equipped with the latest firmware. If you are one of these AirPods users, when they are paired with an iPhone with Apple Smart turned on, you will be able to see the “real-time” page entry in the translation app.
As for the actual effect, in my experience, real-time translation has been able to correctly understand and translate most of the dialogue content, and basic information transmission is not a problem. However, the translation sometimes still seems stiff, especially in some more colloquial expressions, where the traces of machine translation can be clearly felt.
Although there is still a certain gap between natural and smooth cross-language communication, it already has considerable practical value for daily communication.
Summary and Attention
Compared with real-time translation and photo elimination, Apple’s smart changes in daily functions such as notifications and emails may not be so conspicuous, but they are equally practical and can reduce the time we spend processing information and make our attention less easily interrupted. It is indeed very friendly to AuDHD patients like me.
In terms of notifications, Apple Smart will analyze all notifications received by the iPhone and display those that require priority attention at the top of the notification list in the form of “primary notifications.” At the same time, for multiple notifications sent by the same App, the system can also automatically refine the key points and generate a short summary, eliminating the need to view them one by one.
However, the “Generate Notification Summary” function is not turned on by default. You need to manually turn it on and set it up on the Settings > Notifications > Generate Notification Summary page.
At the same time, the “reduced distractions” focus mode has also been officially launched with the arrival of Apple smart phones. Unlike the traditional focus mode, which mainly relies on preset rules to filter notifications, the “Reduce Interference” mode with Apple’s intelligent blessing can determine whether the notification content is important, prioritize information that may need to be processed in a timely manner, and temporarily mute less urgent notifications to minimize unnecessary interruptions.
Mail App has also ushered in similar changes. Faced with a long email or a series of back-and-forth email conversations, Apple smarts can directly extract the main content and help us quickly understand the key points. “Priority Mail” will place time-sensitive emails that require immediate attention at the top of your inbox to prevent important information from being buried in a large amount of emails.
In addition, recordings in Memos and call recording transcriptions in the Phone App also support the generation of content summaries through Apple intelligence, eliminating the need to re-listen to the entire recording or read large paragraphs of text.
Tail
It is not difficult to see that the arrival of Apple’s smart phone this time does not bring many surprises. For domestic users, the long wait has already exhausted their expectations. During the waiting period, overseas users’ generally negative reviews of the first version of Apple’s smart phone also gave us psychological expectations for its actual performance.
After all, when AI from various companies is evolving towards Agent, and my own workflow has been greatly accelerated by the addition of Agent, when I go back to experience these functions that focus on information summary, image processing and simple interaction, it is inevitable that I will feel like my day lily has gone cold.
It can only be said that the arrival of the state-owned Apple smart phone this time is more to fill the gap of “no AI” in Apple devices. It still has a long way to go before it is easy to use, practical, or even as “good-looking” as the new Apple smart liquid glass effect Siri UI.
Of course, if you still can’t help but want to try something new, you have to be reminded that the version currently being pushed is still a test version, and there are risks in trying it. Remember to make a backup before updating.
What do you think of the belated arrival of the National Bank’s Apple smart phone? Welcome to chat in the comment area.
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