Apple Acquires Award-Winning App 'Play'

[MacRumors]

In February, Apple notified the European Commission that it would be acquiring certain assets from and have the right to hire certain employees from Rabbit 3 Times, the company behind the award-winning app design tool Play. The notification was published on the European Commission's website this week, following a four-month waiting period.

Play was a Mac and iPhone app that allowed designers to prototype iPhone app interfaces using Apple's SwiftUI frameworks, and then send them to Xcode.

In 2025, the app won an Apple Design Award for innovation.

"Play is a sophisticated yet accessible tool that lets users build interactive prototypes with SwiftUI frameworks," said Apple. "Its thoughtfully crafted user interface is both powerful and easy to navigate, helping designers create interactive prototypes and collaborate across Mac and iPhone, all synced in real time for seamless creativity."

Play is no longer available in the App Store, presumably due to Apple's acqui-hire.

Apple could use the intellectual property that it acquired from the Play app to improve Xcode, but its exact plans remain to be seen.

Article Link: Apple Acquires Award-Winning App 'Play'

 

[vegetassj4]

pffft...who would hire from a 3x rabbit? Any self respecting rabbit would have 4-8x, with very high performing rabbits doing 12x per litter

 

[tomtad]

I'm pretty sure that says stop ⏹️

 

[phenste]

confusing that they would take such an ostensibly useful app off the App Store post-acqui-hire but I guess that’s how it goes, hopefully Apple just repositions it as a first-party app and doesn’t let it go to waste

 

[ThisIsMike]

Ahhhh, services revenue for the win.

 

[kylemacomber]

Play was ahead of its time. I really admired the product.

I think they were never able to make the leap that Framer did from prototyping tool to full native app builder because code wasn't the source of truth for their data model. That's no surprise, because this is much harder to do on the native Apple stack than the web.

With generative AI, I'm hoping we can finally get there. I'm excited to see what the team accomplishes at Apple.

 

[sparkso]

Why would anyone need to use this anymore when you have Claude Design?

 

[Jeeve Stubbs]

For an app called Play, I would have chosen a Play (►) symbol instead of Stop (■) one.

 

[svish]

Good to know. Will be interesting to see how Apple incorporates its features going forward.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

The EC allowed it because they realized it would make for a nice new fine target. “Now that we have allowed Apple to do this, we’re against Apple having done it and will fine them 20% of their worldwide revenue!”

 

[The Cappy]

Why would anyone need to use this anymore when you have Claude Design?

Why would you ever learn to do anything when you can ask an AI to do it for you... The future is bright. Filled with skill-less people, but bright

 

[verniesgarden]

I could see it being a creator studio version of Xcode