Written by Juju Nieto

What is bereal?

In a time when authenticity is valued more than ever, yet social media is at its most popular, this new social media app is striving to integrate authenticity with social media. Introducing BeReal, a free social media app that was released in 2019 and gained over a 2000% increase in downloads and users in this past year.

BeReal is a photography based social media app that on a basic level, functions like any other social media application. Users are able to register for an account either through a phone number or email, and connect with friends either through username or phone numbers attached to another account. BeReal accounts are automatically private, and users can only see each other's accounts with mutual adding on the platform. Users are also able to access an archive of their own posts (with the app usually compiling a “year in review” video at the end of a calendar year), screenshot the posts of others, and comment and “react” on posted BeReals, reactions being in the form of captured facial reactions from users.

However, there’s a twist! Once a day the app alerts all users once a day that it's “⚠️Time to BeReal⚠️”. When this notification occurs, users are invited to take a picture within the app (which simultaneously captures a photo from the selfie camera and rear camera) within two minutes of the notification. This form of this unique programming is to allow users to be authentic, unfiltered (no filters or photo editing are integrated into the app technology), and prevents them from manufacturing an online persona, especially as once another BeReal notification goes off, the last BeReal is deleted from the “feed”, only accessible to the original poster.

Should a user be unable to post a BeReal in the 2-minute notification window, they are allowed to take a late BeReal. Until a BeReal is posted, users are unable to see the BeReal of added friends, further prompting the user to post an authentic photo in order to engage with the content posted. The lateness of the posting of a BeReal is indicated on the post. When BeReals are posted, the app indicates the exact time users took their photo. The app also indicated how many times users might have retaken their photo, allowing other viewers transparency behind the pictures posted.

Purpose

In the words of the app developers themselves, BeReal was created to build “a social network that brings people closer together.” (BeReal, 2023) BeReal garnered its popularity due to the authentic nature of the app, in which users are actively encouraged to “spontaneously share their real life” and only connect with their close friends within the app, to take the social pressure off of a “following”, “curating”  that exists in most other social media apps. It's also unique in the way that it lacks intense monetization or ads that other social media apps seem to be inundated with. With no opportunity to invest money into the app, or have one’s data sold, or be treated as a mere pawn in a multimillion-dollar social media conglomerate, the authentic nature of the app feels solidified. 

Users

Due to the unique nature of the app, whilst still fitting into the category of “social media'', most credit BeReal’s fast rise to popularity to Gen Zers. While BeReal does not invest in formal marketing (most of the app’s popularity came through word of mouth) BeReal has invested in promoting the app on college campuses through “College Ambassadors” that earn a small stipend when others download the app. In spite of the app’s apparent focus on GenZers, however, Millennials make up the largest group of users with 55.1% of users being Millennials, 43.3% being Gen Z, and the remaining being 45 and older. 

COMPARING BEREAL TO OTHER POPULAR SOCIAL MEDIA APPS

BeReal directly challenges issues and criticisms other major social media platforms face regarding authenticity. The private nature of the app, partnered with the entire concept of ensuring that nothing can be “curated” or “faked” automatically sets the app apart from its competitors, like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. However, as stated before, BeReal still utilizes tried and true methods of social media within their app. Although the app harps on the authentic nature of the user experience, with the “one post a day” feature created to prevent the culture of mindlessly scrolling through a feed, BeReal still has a public “feed” that BeReal users can post their private BeReals too. Additionally, the app allows users to see other’s follower counts and the number of BeReal “reactions,” an aspect of social media major apps use to feed into competitive cultures of visibility.

On top of this, users are more often than not, still utilizing other social media platforms on top of BeReal. In a study by data.ai, researchers found that BeReal users saw major cross-usage with apps like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. BeReal is seldom a normal consumer’s only form of social media, meaning that while BeReal is making a splash in the social media world, it still is not replacing traditional social media applications.  

pros and cons of the app

Cons:

• Ability to post late BeReal may lead to planned posting

• Have to opt out of location tagging

• Public feed of BeReals from all users can potentially feed into the culture of “doom scrolling”

• Follower and like counts are visible 

• A BeReal can only be deleted once. If a user were to delete a BeReal, and then post another, the second BeReal would not be deletable until the next BeReal notification appears

• Lack of marketing on the app, as well as lack of transparency on how much and where BeReal funding comes from leads to an unsure future for the app

Pros

• Authentic & Unplanned

• Easy to use, with a minimal learning curve

• User accounts are automatically private

• Once a day posting mitigates overuse and “doom scrolling” encouraged by other apps

• No ads

• Free

• Lack of ability to build a “brand” or marketability through the app allows it to be a place of genuine connection 

Criticisms

The most staunch criticism of BeReal came from a college junior at Duke in her article “Is nothing sacred anymore?” In Pilar Kelly’s op-ed on the app, Kelly insisted that the app “is performativity feigning authenticity.” The ability to take a BeReal late, the ability to retake a BeReal if the first take wasn’t deemed satisfactory, and the mere fact that BeReal is indeed a social media app at the end of the day, contradicts the app’s supposed purpose of being an authentic and “different” form of social media. 

Kelly’s main point of criticism for BeReal is that in spite of the app’s attempt to differentiate itself from other social media applications,

“…the result [of the app’s creation] is yet another platform where people measure their lives against others, feeling as if their life is less-than because they’re chilling in bed while it seems as if everyone else is out having fun.”

The future of bereal

The future of BeReal is indeterminable. While BeReal’s competitors, like Instagram and Twitter, have large swaths of engineers, marketing teams, data scientists, and financial resources plugging away at ensuring both the user and financial success of their apps, BeReal is a small team based out of France. BeReal’s website and research provide no clear information on what may come next for the app, which could be hugely detrimental as the novelty wears off (which has already been seen as download numbers have decreased steadily since July 2022) or how the app gains revenue.

Personally, I believe that public accounts for public figures on BeReal might be an effective marketing strategy to both bring new users into the app and keep old users engaged. This content could also be kept behind a paywall. With the understanding that fandoms, and obsession for celebrities is a huge source of revenue, targeting celebrities with large followings could be a smart solution to the problems BeReal may be facing in the coming future.

Conclusions

Personally, I love BeReal. While Kelly cited that she feels that BeReal lacks authenticity, I have found that all of the people I keep on my own BeReal emulate the spirit of the app: sharing authentic moments of their own lives. Of course, there are going to be moments when a BeReal goes off in a time that seems too good to be true, like when I took a STELLAR BeReal with my stained glass professor (pictured above), having the perfect opportunity to introduce Rocky to BeReal and show off my project, but most of my BeReals consist of me just hanging out with my roommates, playing Webkinz.

Understanding the nature of BeReal adds to the feeling of intimacy when using it and when being allowed to access the BeReals of others. Knowing that in order to view your BeReal, your friends must also post one, reduces the feeling of voyeurism that I often feel is intrinsically tied to regular social media applications. It adds a feeling of privacy that doesn’t always exist in social media and again, allows for authenticity in a BeReal. Additionally, being private from the start, and therefore carefully curating a following of friends on BeReal creates a sense of safety in being vulnerable to share the “real” parts of yourself that might otherwise not be shared on popular social media applications. 

Also, there is something incredibly joyous in being in others’ BeReals. The serendipity of just happening to be with someone you love enough to add on BeReal when that BeReal alert goes off is exciting and heartwarming and has made me take to the app as I’ve taken to no other.