Apple Intelligence itself is not blocked in the European Union. Siri AI is, on three specific operating systems, and a separate camera feature called Apple Reference Image is shut out of both the EU and China for its own stated reason. Untangling which restriction applies to which feature is one of the most repeated points of confusion around this week’s launch.
Apple spreads these regional carve-outs across several footnotes rather than one page, which is exactly why they get conflated. Here is what belongs to Apple Intelligence broadly, what belongs to Siri AI specifically, and what belongs to Apple Reference Image, using only Apple’s own wording from its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo materials.
| Feature | Blocked in EU at launch | Blocked in China |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Intelligence (writing, image, search tools) | Not listed as excluded | Not listed as excluded |
| Siri AI | Yes, on iOS, iPadOS, watchOS | Apple has not published anything |
| Apple Reference Image | Yes, at launch | Yes, for regulatory reasons |
Does Apple Intelligence work in the EU
Apple’s regional-restriction wording names specific things it excludes: Siri AI on three operating systems, a handful of English-only tools, and a few US-only features such as Apple Cash bill splitting and Maps Local Lists. Apple Intelligence’s baseline writing, image and search tools, the ones built into Mail, Messages, Photos and Notes, do not appear anywhere on that exclusion list, in the EU or elsewhere. Reading the two features as one blocked package is the single most common mistake in how this launch gets discussed, and Apple’s own footnotes do not support it.
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Which part of Apple Intelligence does not work in the EU
Siri AI specifically. Apple’s own newsroom wording says it will not be available initially in the EU in iOS, iPadOS and watchOS, a scope Apple repeats on its product pages using the same three operating systems, not the whole Apple Intelligence feature set and not every platform. Mac and Apple Vision Pro sit outside the exclusion, and Siri AI runs there for EU users on a supported language. That split means an EU shopper reading about iOS 27’s Siri AI beta is reading about a feature their iPhone will not actually run yet, even though their Mac will.
Is Apple Reference Image available in the EU
No, not at launch. Apple describes Apple Reference Image as an opt-in feature that captures signed sensor data and produces what Apple calls a tamper-evident reference image, processed through Private Cloud Compute. Apple states plainly that capture is unavailable in the EU at launch, a separate restriction from anything tied to Siri AI, with a related content-credential technology arriving by a later software update.
Is Apple Reference Image available in China
No. Apple names China specifically for Apple Reference Image, stating that capture is unavailable there for regulatory reasons. That is a more direct statement than Apple has made about any other Apple Intelligence feature in China.
What has Apple actually said about China
Very little, and the gap itself is informative. Apple names China as a launch market for iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo hardware pre-orders, and it specifically excludes Apple Reference Image capture there for regulatory reasons. Beyond that one feature, Apple has published no date, no partial rollout and no regulatory statement about Siri AI or the rest of Apple Intelligence in China, on any page checked for this article. The contrast is the story: Apple is willing to name China when a regulatory reason exists to explain an absence, as it does for Apple Reference Image, and stays silent everywhere else.
| Topic | What Apple has said about China |
|---|---|
| Hardware availability | Named as a launch market for iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo |
| Apple Reference Image | Named specifically: unavailable, for regulatory reasons |
| Siri AI | Nothing published, on any Apple page |
| Apple Intelligence baseline tools | Nothing published, on any Apple page |
What Apple has not said
Apple has not published a EU timeline for Siri AI, has not said when Apple Reference Image might reach the EU or China, and has not made any statement about Siri AI’s status in China at all, positive or negative.
As of September 12, 2026, iOS 27 and Apple Intelligence’s baseline tools ship EU-wide on Monday, September 14, while Siri AI and Apple Reference Image stay restricted there in different ways, a distinction covered in the wider September 9 event recap. The clearest next signal would be Apple updating either footnote, which it has not done since publishing them in June and September.
