Alibaba expands Qwen app with scheduled tasks, office assistant and Qwen3.8-Max support

Five new features rolled out across mobile and PC

Alibaba's Qwen app, along with its PC counterpart, added five new capabilities: a research mode, scheduled tasks, an office assistant, an agent marketplace and voice calls. The update also introduced support for Alibaba's latest flagship model, the Qwen3.8-Max. According to one report, the model name is rendered as "Qwen3.8-MAX" in the underlying Jin10 dispatch, while another refers to "Qwen3.8-Max," a difference attributable to the two translations of the same announcement.

What the new tools do

The scheduled-task feature is designed to handle recurring work such as compiling industry news and sorting emails. The office assistant can connect to notes, calendars and email, operate browsers, process files and generate office documents. The app also supports cross-device workflows in which tasks started on a phone can be executed on a PC. Reports do not specify the underlying architecture or training details behind Qwen3.8-Max, naming it as the flagship model accompanying the release.

Free access with paid usage quotas for professionals

All users can use the new features for free, according to one account of the announcement. The office assistant additionally offers paid access to expanded usage quotas aimed at professional users, a tiering signal that aligns the consumer-facing app with productivity-style monetisation.

Significance for Alibaba's consumer AI strategy

The package positions the Qwen app as a general-purpose AI assistant spanning daily tasks, workplace workflows and agent-based interactions, while tying the consumer product more tightly to the Qwen model family. The five-feature rollout and the bundled flagship-model support suggest Alibaba is broadening Qwen from a conversational tool into an office- and task-oriented platform.

What remains uncertain

Reports do not detail release timing, regional availability, pricing for the office-assistant quotas, or how the agent marketplace is structured, including whether third-party agents are involved or how transactions are handled. Neither report addresses how Qwen3.8-Max compares with prior Qwen variants or with competing models.