New App Rewriting the Rules of Social Media: BeReal

Apr 24, 2022

A new app has risen from the ashes of App Store, climbing the charts called BeReal. User amount increased by more than 300% this year so far. How do you use it? Simple. Be real. The app encourages users to post about their daily lives in a unique way.


In the platform BeReal, you get a notification every day to be real at a different time every day. After the notification you-and everyone- have 2 minutes to take a photo. Whatever you are doing, you take a photo and post it. Busy? don't worry. You can take post later, but your friends will know that you posted late and you won't be able to take a peek at others' posts. Also to mention, your only chance to post again will be tomorrow.

The purpose of this is to increase quality and authenticity. To leave people with no time picking somewhere nice, setting lighting, putting on make-up and posing with nice clothes like on Instagram. In fact, the platform definitely does not want to be like Instagram, or its video oriented cousin, TikTok. They have a warning on their App Store page that defines the app clearly.

BeReal won't make you famous, if you want to become influencer you can stay on TikTok and Instagram.

To add on to the time limit, there is no liking system. There is no followers. There is no ads. You only see what your friends are-or were- up to. The content that gets posted will NOT be polished, as the creator intended. If you were looking for new apps to envy other people's lives, you are in the wrong place.

People could curate the content if they posted late, but that would be visible sticking out amidst bed or grocery store photos. not to mention being against the whole purpose.


BeReal got popular via their college ambassador program first, paying well to those who make others download and use the app. The app addresses the pressure on teens and young adults to look perfect on their photos. Purposeful design and a bit of marketing created a snowball effect and now its in the top 5 of App Store USA. It is refreshing to see social media returning to its roots, but we should remember technology scene is hard a hard place to set up camp on. Although we hope not, this app might very well get forgotten in a year.


  

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