Google acquires Pixate, a Y Combinator-backed mobile app prototyping tool

Native mobile application prototyping service Pixate has been acquired by Google. The team will be working with Google’s design group, according to a blog post. As a result of this deal, Pixate will be making its Studio product free and is “dramatically” reducing the cost of its cloud service.

A Y Combinator alumnus, Pixate launched in 2012. It provides designers with the capability to craft mobile interactions and detailed interactive native prototypes without having to apply any code.

In a Frequently Asked Question section on its website, Pixate says that the service will continue as a standalone product “without any interruption to the service or support,” which one could assume is an intent by Google to support further Android app development. Don’t worry, the company says that you can continue to prototype apps for iOS and other platforms beyond Android. New signups are still being accepted.

As for user data, Pixate says that it’s all going to be available in its new cloud plan, starting at $5 per month.

Here’s the full blog post from Pixate’s CEO Paul Colton announcing the acquisition:

Today, I am very proud to announce that Pixate has joined Google’s design team.

Pixate was started three years ago with the goal to make designing and prototyping native mobile applications easy and more accessible. Our early adopters helped guide us along the path of making tools and services that best fit the needs of designers struggling to turn their ideas into reality. Today, we have companies of all sizes, from single-person startups to global corporations, using Pixate to bring their app ideas to life.

We don’t want to stop there. Our small team at Pixate has some really big ideas, and with the help of Google we’ll be able to bring those ideas to the design community at scale. We’ve become an essential part of the workflow for tens of thousands of designers, and are excited about expanding our mission at Google to reach millions of product teams worldwide.

Starting today we’re making Pixate Studio free and dramatically reducing the cost of the Pixate cloud service. You can read all about that in our FAQ. I sincerely want to thank all of you for your invaluable feedback and the endlessly inspiring prototypes you’ve created with Pixate. The landscape of design tooling is changing rapidly, and Pixate is committed to staying at the forefront.

The company raised $3.8 million in funding from Accel Partners in 2013. It also once launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $25,000 — it surpassed that goal, raising more than $61,000.

The acquisition news comes as Google also released an updated prototyping tool for iOS apps, Form 1.3.