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.
"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.
Apple last week announced a series of new App Store features, including personalized app recommendations and expanded tools for developers to market their apps.
The most visible change for users is Personalized Collections, a new discovery feature that surfaces app and game recommendations tailored to individual interests and behavior. Alongside each recommendation, new "App Notes" explain...
Wednesday June 17, 2026 6:27 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Last week, Apple introduced a new discovery feature for the App Store called Personalized Collections, or app recommendations based on individual interests and behavior. Apple pitched the announcement as another way for developers to have their app discovered, but there has already been some pushback from a privacy perspective.
App Store user analytics collected by Apple (Image: Mysk)
The new ...
Apple today announced that developers in Brazil will be allowed to distribute iPhone apps through alternative app marketplaces on iOS, and accept payments through third-party platforms. In other words, developers in Brazil will be able to circumvent the App Store and Apple's in-app purchase system, but there are still fees.
Alternative app marketplaces will have to be authorized by Apple and ...
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.
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
Likely it will be integrated into Xcode and/or Swift Playground.
Apple's first foldable iPhone, with a book-style design featuring a ~5.5-inch outer display and a ~7.8-inch inner display with a minimal crease down the middle.
