Apple is buying assets from Rabbit 3 Times, the company behind Play, a SwiftUI prototyping app Apple named a 2025 Apple Design Award winner. The deal matters because Play sits close to Apple’s developer workflow: it helped designers build interactive app prototypes with SwiftUI and move ideas toward Xcode.
The acquisition was disclosed through a European Commission listing tied to the EU’s Digital Markets Act, according to 9to5Mac . The filing says Apple “will acquire certain assets from and have the right to offer employment to and hire certain employees of Rabbit 3 Times, Inc. d/b/a Play.”
Apple Buys the SwiftUI Prototyping App It Recently Honored
Play was built for app prototyping, not general note-taking or media saving. It let designers create interactive prototypes using Apple’s SwiftUI frameworks, collaborate across Mac and iPhone, and send work toward Xcode, according to the supplied source material.
That puts the acquisition in a narrow but important lane. Apple is not buying a mass-market social app. It is buying technology — and potentially hiring people — tied directly to how apps for Apple platforms get designed.
The European Commission disclosure did not appear because Apple chose to announce the deal in a keynote or press release. It surfaced because certain tech companies must disclose acquisitions under the DMA, and those disclosures are published by the Commission.
MacRumors reported that Apple notified the European Commission in February, with the disclosure published this week after a four-month waiting period. The exact commercial terms were not provided.
Play has since been removed from the App Store, according to 9to5Mac and MacRumors. What remains unclear is whether existing users can keep using the app, whether support continues, or whether any paid customer arrangements are affected.
| Confirmed from source material | Still unresolved |
|---|---|
| Apple is acquiring certain assets from Rabbit 3 Times, Inc. d/b/a Play | Whether the transaction has fully closed |
| Apple has the right to offer jobs to certain Rabbit 3 Times employees | Which employees, if any, are joining Apple |
| Play won the 2025 Apple Design Award for Innovation | Whether Play returns as a standalone Apple app |
| Play has been removed from the App Store | What happens to existing users or support |
For adjacent Apple platform coverage, MLXIO has also covered Apple Tries to Freeze Epic Games Fight Over App Store and Developers Lose Hours as App Store Connect Hits a Snag. This Play deal is a different kind of Apple story: less about distribution rules, more about the tools used before an app reaches the store.
Play’s Award Win Points to Apple’s Interest in Faster App Design
Apple had already endorsed Play publicly before the acquisition surfaced. In 2025, the company named Play the Apple Design Award winner in the Innovation category.
Apple’s award language focused on the app’s mix of power and approachability:
“Play is a sophisticated yet accessible tool that lets users build interactive prototypes with SwiftUI frameworks. 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.”
That quote is the center of the story. Apple praised Play not merely for looking good, but for using Apple’s own frameworks to make app design faster and more interactive.
TechCrunch’s 2025 Apple Design Awards coverage said Apple named 12 winners across six categories, with one app and one game in each category. It also described Play as a M13-backed developer prototyping tool and noted that generative AI apps were “noticeably missing” from Apple’s winners list for the second year in a row.
That context matters. Apple’s award slate, at least in this case, rewarded a tool that made better use of Apple platform technologies rather than an app riding a broader AI wave.
MLXIO analysis: The most direct reading is that Apple saw value in Play’s design model, its SwiftUI implementation, or its team. The acquisition does not prove Apple plans to copy Play into Xcode feature-for-feature. But the assets and hiring rights point toward internal reuse, not just passive ownership.
The acquisition also fits a familiar Apple pattern at a high level: take a focused app or team, absorb the useful pieces, and decide later whether the result appears as a standalone product, a system feature, or part of a developer tool. The supplied sources do not list Apple’s other recent app acquisitions, so the comparison should stay limited to Play’s specific role.
Xcode Is the Obvious Destination, but Apple Has Not Said So
The clearest product path is Xcode. Play already lived near that workflow: designers could prototype iPhone interfaces with SwiftUI and send them to Xcode, according to MacRumors.
If Apple folds Play’s technology into its developer stack, the likely value is speed. Designers could test interactions earlier. Developers could receive prototypes that map more closely to SwiftUI. Teams could reduce the gap between mockup and build.
That is analysis, not confirmation. Apple has not announced a Play-branded feature for Xcode, SwiftUI, or any future developer release.
A second possible route is a new Apple-owned standalone app. 9to5Mac raised that possibility, alongside Xcode integration. The App Store removal, though, makes the standalone path harder to read in the near term.
A third path is quieter: Apple hires some of the Play team and uses the acquired assets internally. The Commission language gives Apple “the right to offer employment to and hire certain employees,” but does not say who accepted, what teams they would join, or what they would build.
For developers and design teams, the practical questions are immediate:
- Availability: Play has been pulled from the App Store.
- Continuity: Existing-user support has not been clarified in the supplied material.
- Integration: Apple has not said whether Play’s features are bound for Xcode.
- Timing: No launch date or software roadmap has been disclosed.
The next signals should be concrete, not speculative: App Store listing changes, support-page updates, Apple developer beta notes, or future Apple developer announcements that resemble Play’s SwiftUI prototyping workflow. Until then, the safest read is narrow but meaningful: Apple just moved to acquire a tool it had already singled out as one of the best examples of innovation on its platforms.
The Bottom Line
- Apple is acquiring technology closely tied to SwiftUI prototyping and the app design workflow for its platforms.
- The deal could influence how designers move prototypes into Xcode and future Apple developer tools.
- The DMA disclosure highlights how EU rules are making some Big Tech acquisitions more visible.
