Apple just bought the company behind Play, a highly praised app that helps designers create user interfaces directly on their devices. The news came out through a notification on the European Commission website this week. The tech giant originally told the commission about the deal back in February, and the details became public after a standard four-month waiting period. This move lets Apple bring new talent and design ideas directly into its own ecosystem.
The tech giant takes over the design tool to boost its own software
The app was built by a company called Rabbit 3 Times. It stood out because it allowed people to build interactive prototypes on the Mac and iPhone using SwiftUI frameworks. Designers could easily spin up a concept and then send it straight over to Xcode to finish the job. The design community loved it, and the app even won a special design award for innovation in 2025. The company itself praised the tool, calling it a sophisticated but easy-to-use way for teams to work together and sync their designs in real time.
If you go looking for Play right now, you will notice it is already gone from the App Store. This is standard practice for this kind of deal, which is basically an “acqui-hire” where a big corporation buys a smaller company mainly to get its talented workers and intellectual property.
While the leadership has not shared its game plan yet, the team will likely use what they built to make Xcode a lot better for everyday developers. Getting these design tools directly into the official setup could make building apps a much smoother process for everyone in the future.
