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 pulling the app. Rave alleges Apple targeted the service because Rave competed with SharePlay, and Apple wanted to corner the market on smartphone co-viewing. Rave claims that Apple also falsely labeled the Rave Mac app as malware, preventing Mac users from installing it.
Discussion on Reddit suggests that Rave had unmoderated public chatrooms, pornography, issues with scams, and CSAM material. The Rave app was also labeled as malware by Kaspersky, BitDefender, Windows, and Google, suggesting Apple may have had reason to protect users from the app beyond limiting competition. Apple has not yet commented on the lawsuit or the app's removal.
Rave claims that it has now created "industry-leading" content moderation and age verification technologies, presumably to preempt Apple's content moderation criticism.
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 lets users remotely watch content together, with built-in discussion features.
Apple's SharePlay service, which came out in 2021, similarly lets iPhone, iPad, and Mac users watch and chat about TV shows, movies, and music. SharePlay does not work on Android and Windows devices, so Rave was able to deliver a cross-platform collaborative viewing experience that was unavailable with SharePlay.
Rave has filed antitrust lawsuits in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands, and Russia, and it is aiming to get the Rave apps reintroduced on iOS and macOS and recover damages related to its removal from the App Store.
