Overview
- Apple notified the European Commission in February that it would acquire certain assets from Rabbit 3 Times and the right to hire some employees, and the transaction appeared on the EU DMA acquisitions list after the required four-month review.
- Rabbit 3 Times stopped supporting Play on April 20, removed the app from the App Store, and took its website offline as part of the transition for users.
- Play was a Mac and iPhone tool that let designers and developers build interactive SwiftUI prototypes in real time and export projects to Xcode; it won an Apple Design Award for Innovation in 2025.
- Rabbit 3 Times briefly made its paid Play-to-Xcode export free to help users move projects before the app was pulled, but Apple has not publicly outlined how it will use the acquired technology or staff.
- The acquisition follows Apple’s prior moves to strengthen Swift tooling and suggests the company may fold Play features into Xcode or offer a companion app, a change that could speed prototyping but leaves short-term uncertainty for existing Play users.