Rave, a cross-platform service that lets users watch movies and TV shows together, today filed a series of antitrust lawsuits against Apple after Apple removed the Rave app from the App Store in August 2025.
According to Rave, Apple cited “unspecified allegations of fraud and vague concerns about content moderation” when removing the app. Rave alleges that Apple targeted the service because Rave competed with SharePlay and Apple wanted to corner the smartphone co-viewing market. Rave claims that Apple also falsely labeled the Rave Mac app as malware, preventing Mac users from installing it.
Discussions on Reddit suggest that Rave had unmoderated public chat rooms, pornography, scam issues, and CSAM material. The Rave app has also been called malware by Kaspersky, BitDefender, Windows and Google, suggesting that Apple may have had reasons to protect the app’s users beyond limiting competition. Apple has not yet commented on the lawsuit or the removal of the app.
Rave claims to have created “cutting-edge” content moderation and age verification technologies, likely to preempt Apple’s criticism of content moderation.
Rave was available on iOS, Mac, Android and Windows, but after Apple’s crackdown, the service is limited to Windows and Android devices. Founded in 2016, Rave allows users to watch content together remotely, with built-in chat features.
Apple’s SharePlay service, released in 2021, also allows iPhone, iPad and Mac users to watch and discuss TV shows, movies and music. SharePlay does not work on Android and Windows devices, so Rave was able to offer a cross-platform collaborative viewing experience that was not available with SharePlay.
Rave has filed antitrust lawsuits in the United States, Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands, and Russia, and aims to reintroduce Rave apps to iOS and macOS and recover damages related to its removal from the “App Store.”