ByteDance’s TikTok blew up in popularity during the pandemic, taking some of the attention away from Instagram, part of Meta. Now, another social media app, BeReal, is becoming the go to app at colleges around the U.S. — in a similar way to how Facebook got off the ground — and is expected to only continue to grow its following globally.
Here are five facts to know about the app du jour.
How it works
Described by the app’s founders as “a new and unique way to discover who your friends really are in their daily life,” everyday at a different time, everyone is notified simultaneously to capture and share two photos of what they are doing at that specific time through their front and back facing phone camera lens in two minutes.
It’s not brand new
The app was founded in 2020 by Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau in Paris and raised around $36 million in funds in June 2021 from VC firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Accel Partners, according to various media reports. But it is only recently that it has surged in popularity outside of its native France, clocking in more than 1 million downloads globally in February, particularly among college students, which it has targeted via sponsored clubs and events on campuses across the U.S.
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It’s viewed as a casual version of Instagram
While some Instagram users carefully curate their feed and edit their pictures with an array of filters, the way BeReal works means that the images are more raw, unglamorous and, as it says on the tin, “real.” Fitting in with this theme, there are no filters or “like” functions to be found on the app. “After being tired and annoyed with all the bulls–t on social media, I decided to launch my own,” cofounder Barreyat wrote in a LinkedIn post at the time of BeReal’s official launch back in 2020, explaining his reasons for creating the app. “No like, no followers, no ads, no filters, just what my friends are doing, in the most authentic way possible.”
You can’t just view content
While on many social media apps, including TikTok and Instagram, you can view other users’ photographs and videos without having to post anything yourself, that is not the case with BeReal. It requires users to post some photographs in order to see other users’ content.
Retakes are not a secret
So much planning can go behind certain Instagram users’ posts in order to capture the perfect shot, even though in many cases they are trying to give the impression that it is a natural, spontaneous photograph. But on BeReal this is much harder to do as users will be notified how many retakes it took to get the perfect shot. They will also be notified if the photographs are late in being posted.
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