# Play: Create Better Apps — Design. Prototype. Ship.

> Mobile app design and prototyping tool with native iOS elements and hardware access. (iPhone/iPad app by Rabbittt.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/play-create-better-apps/id6669873480 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Rabbittt](https://appshunter.io/developer/1479709804)
- Category: Graphics & Design, Developer Tools
- Price: Free
- Rating: 4.20/5 from 24 App Store ratings · 28 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 65 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2024-09-13
- Data updated: 2026-06-10
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/play-create-better-apps/id6669873480/reviews.md

## What is Play?

Play has been awarded the 2025 Apple Design Award for Innovation! We're honored to be recognized with one of Apple's highest accolades.

If you’re designing a mobile app, we’re building Play for you. Play combines a familiar design canvas with the power of Apple's native iOS elements, access to device hardware, and interactions that use Core Animation. Play takes a new approach to app design by giving you access to the native materials of the medium, but design and prototype from both your Mac and iPhone.

Play’s Features

— Design with native iOS elements like Apple Maps, Swift Charts, SF Symbols, Materials, input text fields, date pickers, switches, steppers, modals, and more. 

— Design interactions that are performant, interruptible, and use Apple's Core Animation to render your prototype with the same technology as a finished mobile app.

— Tap directly into the powerful capabilities of Apple hardware with features like the camera and haptics.

— Design collaboratively on your Mac and your iPhone, all synced in real-time.

— Already have designs in Figma? Easily copy and paste right into Play to continue working

— Designs and prototypes are responsive by default in Play. Easily view your work across every iPhone device with the tap of a button.

— Use SwiftUI code that’s generated in real-time based on your designs, letting engineers easily layout views in Xcode.

Apple Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

## Key features

- Design with native iOS elements
- Prototype with Core Animation
- Access device hardware (camera, haptics)
- Real-time collaborative design
- Import from Figma
- Responsive design
- Generate SwiftUI code

## Recent user reviews (10 of 28)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/play-create-better-apps/id6669873480/reviews.md

### 2/5 — Horrible Editor

*2025-12-17*

This app is fine for previewing a prototype, but the editor is absolutely horribly unintuitive. They should not even have a mobile version of it. You will break things without even knowing you’re doing it.

### 3/5 — Pas en français

*2025-10-08, version 3.9.2*

Dommage que l’application n’est pas disponible en français

### 1/5 — Can’t create account

*2025-07-10*

Ive been trying to create a account but when it tells me to enter a code it says invalid i did this 12 times and it keeps saying invalid I check my emails i see the code I type in it does not work i check very hard and I made sure that I was not typing anything wrong i even tried to look at the code on another device and I type in on my phone and it still does not work no matter what I restart app type code does not work i am on the gmail application and I check the code on there and it still doesn’t work I can’t really do anything that’s all the methods Ive tried and nothing works so last thing I can really do is delete the app.

### 5/5 — Güzel

*2025-07-08, version 3.5.2*

Tablette , telefon formatında gözükmesi bir tek tuhaf geldi. Bunun dışında gayet detaylı ve başarılı.

### 1/5 — only iOS?

*2025-06-18, version 3.4.2*

no ipadOS? no macOS and so on?? until then a nice playground only..

### 5/5 — Beautiful

*2025-06-17*

Amazingly well-designed and powerful for quickly designing apps

### 1/5 — Zaman kaybı

*2025-06-12, version 3.4.2*

Tıklıyorum çok uzun yüklüyor anlamadık

### 4/5 — Change Your Name

*2025-06-12, version 3.4.2*

Dude, this is probably the worst name you could pick. Its even difficult to find it on my own phone. Try to type Play on the App Store, and see where in the bottom your app is (if it even makes the list)

### 5/5 — Best App Designing ever

*2025-06-11, version 3.4.2*

What should I say more, it looks fantastic it’s easy to navigate/use…etc. the team made a great job

### 1/5 — Terrible

*2025-06-11, version 3.4.2*

The only good thing is iOS 19 demo on my iPhone 6 because I can’t afford the new ones 😭

## Frequently asked questions about Play

### What does Play: Create Better Apps do?

Play is a tool designed for mobile app designers and developers. It allows you to design and prototype applications using native iOS elements, interact with device hardware, and generate SwiftUI code for easier integration into Xcode.

### What are the key features of Play?

Key features include designing with native iOS elements like Maps and SF Symbols, creating performant interactions using Core Animation, accessing device hardware such as the camera and haptics, real-time collaboration, importing designs from Figma, and generating SwiftUI code.

### Is Play free to use?

Based on the provided information, the application is free to use and does not have in-app purchases or ads. The Apple Terms of Use are linked for further details.

### What devices is Play compatible with?

Play is designed for creating mobile apps, and its features allow for viewing designs across every iPhone device. You can design and prototype from both your Mac and iPhone.

### Who is Play intended for?

This application is built for individuals who are designing mobile apps. It's particularly useful for those who want to leverage native iOS elements, create realistic prototypes, and streamline the handoff to engineering with generated SwiftUI code.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 4.2.1 — 2026-01-08

Bug fixes & Improvements

### 4.2.0 — 2025-12-08

Organize Project Lists
- We’ve made it much easier to organize your projects:
- Easily find your most recently edited projects with Play’s new Recents tab. The 10 projects you’ve opened most recently will appear here automatically, ready for you to continue where you left off.
- Tags are no longer just a search filter. Now, they appear as folders in the sidebar, making it easy to view all projects associated with a specific tag. You can still view all projects at once and search within any tag folder.

Small Improvements
- Track your App Clip’s publishing process with our new status toast.
- The macOS Simulator now supports isPad and isCustom functions.
- The currentStateName function is now available in the Expression Editor for components.
- Send an image to an API as base64 using the base64Image and - Stylistic Set Options are available for SF fonts, including: straight-sided six and nine, open four, vertically centered colon, open currencies, high legibility, single story a, and calculator.

Bug Fixes
- Nested component state did not update properly on mobile and Simulator
- Navigation bar was not displayed when a page was opened via Zoom Transition Open Page
- Play AI “dark/light mode” prompts were not translated correctly
- Variable Progress property did not work with Set SF Symbol action
- Blank button title could not be changed via expression
- Target page’s navigation bar was not displayed when opened via Open Sheet
- Navigation bar height was incorrect on first enable on mobile and Simulator
- Tab bar assets panel was broken when opened before the regular Assets Panel
- Reselecting an already selected tab bar item caused the page to scroll past the current offset
- Navigation bar not displayed when a page was reopened after a Zoom Transition Open Page
- Project Appearance setting was overwritten by device appearance when using Full Screen Open Page
- Button Subtitle Color slider did not show the selected color
- Hovering cursor did not appear consistently in Explore
- SF Symbol variable progress value overlapped the title
- iOS lobby date created and date edited labels did not update when sorting
- Animation for Set Material Blur started from .zero origin frame
- Override dots in Rive / Set Playback interactions were missing

### 4.1.2 — 2025-11-21

Bug fixes & Improvements

### 4.1.1 — 2025-11-18

Bug fixes & Improvements

### 4.1.0 — 2025-11-13

Rive Data Binding
- We now support Rive data binding! As Rive explains it, “Data binding is a ‘contract’ between designers and developers” that introduces “intermediate data that both sides can bind to.” Essentially, data binding allows you to create View Models with properties that designers can use in their designs and developers can connect to a data source. A designer can use “Color 1” across their Rive and the developer can separately define what “Color 1” is.
- Rive has been moving users away from inputs and towards data binding, and now Rive users can easily test their Rive files with data binding inside Play!

Figma Updates
- You can now import your tokens from Figma into Play as styles! Just download the plugin Tokens Studio (link) in Figma, download the JSON, and upload it into Play. 
- Copy paste Figma import is still supported, and now Figma text is automatically imported into Play as a text element. No need to “make editable.”

Play AI Updates
- Give Play AI’s Generate command additional context by uploading a HTML file, JSON file, or image.

Improvements
- We now support several additional Expression Editor properties and functions:
- Cast items as SVGs to access SVG-specific properties with the castAsSVG function or .asSVG property.
- Get device version properties like version, versionMajor, versionMinor, versionPatch, and versionString.
- Return a value within a range with the clamp function, which takes a current value, minimum value, and maximum value and returns the current value, unless it is outside the defined range, in which case it returns the minimum or maximum value.
- Update the text or symbol of a navigation bar item with expression editor properties.

Bug fixes
- The iOS app crashed when adjusting text line height
- The iOS app and Simulator occasionally crashed during page loading
- The iOS app occasionally turned black after refreshing Play Mode
- Buttons corner radii did not update when changed
- The tab bar now renders correctly when switching the editor between Landscape and Portrait
- The Simulator status bar displayed incorrectly when switching tabs
- Paywall occasionally appeared when copying prefabs
- Reset override option for Menu Items titles and subtitles did not work as expected
- Interacting with AI Views on iOS caused errors
- Layout behavior was incorrect for Fill-Width × Auto-Height stacks inside other stacks on mobile
- SF Symbols colors did not display correctly in palette mode
- Event names added through the nav bar didn’t save
- Undo didn’t work for updates to type style letter spacing or nav and tab bar property updates
- Uploaded assets did not immediately appear on mobile
- Color styles did not render consistently between page, editor, and Simulator
- Global cast functions didn’t work correctly
- Set Layer Blur actions didn’t animate correctly on the Simulator
- Custom tab bar assets didn’t render properly between selected and unselected states
- Button symbols didn’t adapt to light and dark mode
- Closing the macOS editor didn’t dismiss the Live Play Mode tutorial
- Set SF Symbol animations only played on subsequent triggers, not the first one
- Buttons within stacks with glass effect glitched when loading
- Additional minor bugs

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## More apps by Rabbittt

- [Play: Legacy App](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/play-legacy-app/id1479709805)
- [Play 1.0 Legacy](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/play-10-legacy/id6444542118)
- [Lume GPT Weather](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lume-gpt-weather/id6742734313)

All apps by Rabbittt: https://appshunter.io/developer/1479709804

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*