It’s the app that swept a generation in the blink of an eye. In case you’re out of the loop, BeReal is an app that is meant to capture people at a random point in their day, where they are given two minutes to capture a photo of whatever they’re doing and post it. There are no filters, and no expectations for what should be posted. Just a photo from the front camera, as well as the back, in the span of a random two minute interval once a day. BeReal is an app that was created in France by two people, Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau, in the summer of 2020. It quickly gained fame across Europe a year later in the summer of 2021, and began to gain a large amount of popularity in America beginning in mid-summer of 2022.
So, how come it swept the nation off its feet just as fast as Wordle had during its short, but sweetly, lived fame session?
BeReal is appealing to this generation for a number of reasons. The biggest reason that so many people find it appealing is because of the fact that it doesn’t allow for edits or filters. This causes it to stand out from a multitude of other social media platforms. Seeing as the largest aspect of other social media platforms is their focus on capturing the “perfect” image of one’s life. It includes going through dozens of images to individually select the few that are seen as flawless, and will then show highlights of one’s life, instead of the actual reality. With the short amount of time allowed to capture a photo, there is no time to stage what is actually happening in front of you, allowing for a more authentic form of social media posting than what people are used to.
Another reason it’s so widely accepted by this generation is because of the actual social part of it. There is no actual follower count, which also differs it from other social medias, but you can add your friends. This fills your feed with the posts from your friends, so you can also see the moments of their days. It creates a fun anticipation among everyone, you’re not only looking forward to what you’ll post, but also to what everyone else is going to post about. Along with this, you cannot add a like to a post, but you can post a reaction where you take a picture of yourself and submit it as a reaction, or you can leave a comment. This allows for interactions with posts to continue, while not subjecting people to basing their worth on it. The problem of basing self esteem on your social media presence has been increasing among the younger generations for some time now, so it’s refreshing to have an app that doesn’t submit anyone to that.
One of the final large reasons why the app has become so popular is the thrill that is gained with the user population not knowing what time the notification will go off. After the notification goes off, people have two minutes to capture their photo and post it before their friends list is notified of them posting late. There is no indication prior to the notification to know when it will be time to post as it’s completely random. It does happen once a day, however, which ensures user engagement at least once a day if you are keeping up with the notification and care enough to post that day. Once the new notification goes off, your previous BeReal will no longer be able to be viewed by your friends, and the cycle begins all over again. The only way to go through and relive the previous BeReal posts is through your personal account, where you have access to an archive of all your personal posts.
So, what’s my hot take with BeReal? As a daily user of the app, I can say that I am absolutely guilty of falling into the obsession of BeReal and the pure excitement of getting that singular notification once a day to see what everyone is up to. I find it to be extremely fulfilling when I get to see the notification on time and post within the two minutes we’re given to do so, sometimes feeling like the daily winner when I post before anyone else.
However, I have also noticed the odd feeling of when one person announces that “it’s time to BeReal” and a swarm of people suddenly have their phone out and open to the app in hopes of not posting late. The sense of slight shame that is met when you realize you’re posting late is new to the game of social media, as there is no other app that will notify your friends when posting late, as there is no time restriction anywhere else. I completely understand the reasoning behind the timer with BeReal, as it reinforces their entire hope to not allow people to stage their photos. Unfortunately, it has developed into something that causes people to feel like they’re not “doing the app correctly” since they’re not posting with everyone else.
I also fear that it will meet the same fate as so many other apps that have met the generation that has no attention span: it will gain an incredible amount of attention now, and then will be met with just as fast a fall off. It would be a shame to see BeReal fall off like so many other apps before it, but I cannot concretely say that I see it lasting more than a few more years on everyone’s radar. It’s a worthy opponent to things like Instagram for right now, but it might not be enough to remain a competitor in the long run.
That all being said, add me as a friend on BeReal: @smiley_kylieee.