Apple bought a small startup — and soon making iPhone apps could be much easier (AAPL)

Apple bought Buddybuild, which makes software for iOS app developers.
They will join the Xcode team at Apple.
Buddybuild will wind down its Android app development features by March.

Apple has purchased a small Canadian company that makes software for engineers and app developers. Buddybuild, which is based in Vancouver, BC, announced the acquisition on its blog on Tuesday.

"We're excited to share that the buddybuild team has joined the Xcode engineering group at Apple to build amazing developer tools for the entire iOS community," Buddybuild announced.

"As of today, we are no longer accepting new customers. Existing Free Starter plans and Android app development will be discontinued on March 1, 2018," it continued, although it noted that the service will remain operational for iOS apps.

The deal was first reported by TechCrunch, which said that Apple confirmed the purchase. A price for the deal couldn't immediately be learned.

Xcode is Apple's software for making software for iPhones and Macs. It's extremely important — every single iPhone app was built in Xcode, and Apple works very hard to keep its armies of app developers happy, and that starts with the software its developers use.

According to the startup, Buddybuild made the only "mobile continuous integration and delivery platform." For non-engineers, that means its tools make it easier for teams of coders to make code changes on big projects.

Buddybuild was founded in 2015, according to CrunchBase, and had raised two round of funding, most recently a $7.6 million Series A led by Kleiner Perkins.

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