I noticed several times that japanese people use 遊ぶ (play) when talking about meeting someone (usually friends or partners) instead of 会う (meet).
For example:
1) 明日、友達と遊ぶ。
or
2) 遊びに来てね。
Is it just a colloquial way of saying "to meet and enjoy time together" or can (obvioulsy depending on the context) 遊ぶ imply intimate intentions, maybe in the second example?
遊ぶ still means play and 会う does mean meet.
But when you use it in a sentence, lets say the one in your first example:
明日、友達と遊ぶ予定だよ。＝ I'm going to play with my friends tomorrow.
I would say the best translation for the word 遊ぶ here would be "hang-out", that you can kind of picture meeting your friends and have fun together.
In English it is more common to put more focus on the 'meeting' part but in Japanese the focus is on the latter. The meeting part is assumed to happen before the "playing" part, just like how you assumed you'll surely play with your friends after you meet them.
If you think about it, it is actually quite weird to say "I am going to meet my friends tomorrow".
To me it feels like you purposely planned to go meet them, say hi then you'll do nothing with them.
会う does mean "meet" but only used when the focus is on meeting someone. It can be used when you meet someone accidentally on the street, perhaps chatted for a bit but the focus is still on meeting the person when you try to tell others about it.
Another way to use the word is when you have a formal meeting with someone, such as in a business occasion which you'll have an appointment with a person and chat about each others company or so to get to know about each other.
Regarding if 遊ぶ could imply intimate intentions, my answer is yes, it can. 遊ぶ simply means "to play", one can play games, play tricks on others, or play secret games that only adult would know.
But technically any word can be used to imply intimate intentions given the [right context]{dirty mind}. Examples:
Illustrations are supplied to prove my point but if you have a clean mind like I think nothing can be used to imply intimate intentions.
If thats the case, please seek [advice]{(´◔౪◔)} from your doctor.
