What is BeReal? Everything you need to know about this fast-growing social media app

For example, only so many retakes are feasible within 120 seconds, so I felt less internal pressure to catch a flattering selfie. As with many other social medias, the popularity of BeReal has led to impacts in the workplace. However, employees’ BeReal posts could be beneficial for marketing, and companies can benefit as it appeals to millennials and Generation Z. One of my favorite features on BeReal is the “profile” page, where you can see all your previous posts, which the app calls your “memories.” Even if you post just a few minutes late, the app notifies all your friends to let them know you’ve just made a “late” post, which to me, felt a bit like a mark of shame.

• Users are able to delete a post after sharing, but just one deletion is allowed per day.
• Even if it doesn’t last forever, you may have a good time relishing the banal.
• With BeReal, I don’t feel a lot of pressure to post every day because there is no film or finished product to look forward to.
• With RealMoji, users can create their own by taking a picture of themselves.

BeReal encourages participation by asking users to share content before they can view other people’s posts. Retakes are allowed and you can still post if you miss the window, but in both cases, your friends will see that you retook the image or posted late. In an age where social media features heavily edited photos, an app like BeReal can encourage authenticity. Many young people have embraced the app because of this, seeing many benefits.

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One thing I really didn’t like about BeReal is the way it notifies you when someone’s photo has been posted after the two-minute notification has passed. I was thankful that my post would only be visible to people I added as “friends” on the app, so no one else could see this rather unimpressive picture. When I first downloaded the app, it almost immediately asked me to post my first BeReal, giving me a two-minute countdown to take my picture.

• The pristine, curated Instagram aesthetic has been declared dead multiple times, and BeReal capitalizes on a continuing quest for authenticity on social media, whatever that means.
• When a user downloads the BeReal app, they must add their phone number, name and age.
• “A big part of why I wrote it is because I was trying to figure out whether or not the internet is a place where we can feel human,” he said.
• Your geolocation will be included with the post unless you toggle it off.
• Similar to the earliest forms of social networking sites (remember AIM), on the app you have friends instead of followers and only these select groups of people can see your posts.

Where Yik Yak oozes toxicity, BeReal feels like a safe haven, at least for the time being. If you convince a couple of friends to participate, the app can be off-the-cuff fun. BeReal is a rare social media experience that does not feel like a constant competition for maximum exposure. Even if it doesn’t last forever, you may have a good time relishing the banal. Jules Kourelakos, a student at Duke University, pointed out that while BeReal appears less performative than other social media options, users continue to capture a posed version of themselves.

Benefits of BeReal

Users can also share their location and save the image to their device. If the photo is shared outside of the standard two minute window, other users can see a note that tells them this. I’ve also found that BeReal isn’t an app I would spend hours procrastinating on. I usually post my picture, briefly scroll through and react to my friends’ pictures, and then get on with the rest of my day. It has felt like a refreshing and healthy way to use social media that I’ve really come to appreciate.

• The goal is for on-the-ground events, strategically located in university towns, to ignite a young, engaged user base for the app in North America that then spreads to a wider audience.
• Family photo albums or homemade movies from childhood are also snapshots of the best moments.
• In total, Mueller said she had around 50 friends on BeReal, a much smaller number than the 2,000 or so followers she has on Instagram.

BeReal’s recent surge in downloads can be partially attributed to a string of viral TikToks referencing the social media app. BeReal is a social media app that might just bring back a little bit of authenticity to our social media posts. BeReal is a French social media photo sharing app released in 2020, gaining popularity in 2022. It encourages users to post a photo of themselves and their lives without filters or editing to the images every day at a different time. In September, TikTok introduced TikTok Now, a way to “foster authentic and spontaneous connections on TikTok”.

What happens to your BeReal after you post it?

For example, instead of the thumbs up emoji, a user could send themselves give a thumbs up. Because of its daily cycle of engagement, it has been compared to Wordle, which gained popularity earlier in 2022.[26] It also supports a platform similar to Snapchat with a theme of impermanence and brevity. In the past, trendy apps like Houseparty and Clubhouse have had big moments of popularity, but after a while, people around me have stopped using them, so I’m excited to see what happens in this case.

You need an account to get started on BeReal, which is available for iPhone and Android. Once you’ve downloaded the app, it will request access to your contacts to connect with friends who may use the service already (you can decline, if you wish). Unless your Rolodex is full of trendsetters, portable app pdf editor many of your friends may not use the platform yet. Leaving time-sensitive notifications on is crucial if you aim to post within the daily two minutes. BeReal might be the closest thing to an unvarnished social media experience, although you do get two minutes to get the best snap of course.

Recent posts

While the search for authenticity online may be a fruitless one, the app is well-designed and easy to pick up. In December 2022, similar to Spotify’s “Wrapped,” BeReal launched a feature involving a video of a compilation of users’ BeReal posts of 2022. I initially thought BeReal was strictly for sharing photos, but after a few days, I realized I could also add a caption underneath my picture after it went live. Rather, you have to take a selfie of your face inside a circle template on the app. These are called “realmojis,” where instead of commenting on someone’s post with an emoji, your facial expression becomes an emoji in itself. According to the BeReal website, you can only delete your post once a day after you’ve posted it on your feed.

I aspired to post on time every day, feeling especially proud of myself when I managed to do so. BeReal allows you to share photos of yourself and your life, but with a catch. It tells you that it’s time to post your BeReal for the day and you have two minutes to do so.

Can you gain followers on BeReal?

“It’s just so fun to, like, go take a break throughout my day and just go on there and see exactly what people are doing in the moment and, like, throughout their day and where people are at,” she said. The idea is you take a photo of whatever you’re doing at that time, no matter how mundane or exciting. You could be walking to class, taking a bus to work, or maybe you get the notification right as you’re sitting down for dinner or on a bike ride.

• “I do think one of the big challenges people feel on social media is I’m seeing everybody else’s highlight reel, but I’m experiencing the fullness of my own life with all of the mundane stuff,” Stedman said.
• BeReal notifications go off once a day at different, random times for all the users.
• A French social media platform launched by Alexis Barreyat in 2020, BeReal recently reached the top of the free download charts on iOS, surpassing TikTok.
• Your post each day is the toll to view friends’ posts on the discovery feed.
• BeReal sends users a prompt at a random time each day, urging them to snap a picture and send it to their friends.

Family photo albums or homemade movies from childhood are also snapshots of the best moments. The parameters in place are billed by the app as “a new and unique way to discover who your friends really are in their daily life.” There’s also a comments section under every person’s post, where friends can chime in with their witty (or not so witty) remarks, making for a lot of wholesome fun all around. When I tried to delete my unflattering BeReal post, I was given a list of options and asked to tick the reason I wanted to delete my picture. In total, Mueller said she had around 50 friends on BeReal, a much smaller number than the 2,000 or so followers she has on Instagram. And unlike Instagram or Snapchat, where Mueller says there is pressure “to look good,” she thinks BeReal doesn’t have that fake feeling to it.

What is the BeReal app?

I very quickly got a sense of what the app was all about because I didn’t have time to assess the lighting or fix my hair before having to take the shot. When posting a BeReal, the app takes a picture using both your front and back camera, so other people can see what you look like and where you are. BeReal sounds like it would serve a similar function to some group chats Stedman already has in his life, he said. These are places where not every photo has to be polished, where friends share links and are more intimate about the details of their lives. Stedman started working on his book after he went through a difficult moment in his life, and found that he was not telling that story online, where he was posting as if everything was fine. “Snapchat is more like you’re sending this to one person, if you post on your story, you’re trying to look good,” she said.

• As of November 2022, BeReal is ranked number six in the app store for top free social-networking apps for iPhone, trailing shortly behind industry giants such as Facebook and WhatsApp.
• It is similar in some ways to Wordle because of its daily cycle that promotes moderation of screen time instead of endless scrolling.
• There are six standard emojis to react with along with an option to create a RealMoji.
• “To be able to get this reminder that everyone else’s lives largely are made up of mundane moments too, I can definitely see some value in that.”

It definitely took me a few days to get used to BeReal’s unique format. I kept getting frustrated that my pictures weren’t as polished or aesthetic as I would usually want them to be, but I’m slowly starting to enjoy the fact that there’s no pressure to look my best on the app. I started to really like this feature, as it allowed me to add context to my BeReal and explain what I was doing. I had a lot of fun with these, as it felt like I could react to what my friends were doing in a more authentic and personal way by showing them my own face.

Reporting inappropriate content

Your friends are also supposed to get the notification at the same time. BeReal’s Terms of Use encourages users to report any content that is sexual or pornographic, or related to hate speech, extremism, violence, suicide or self-harm. Photos, RealMojis and comments can all be reported if they fall into these categories or breach other items on the Terms of Use.

• There’s also a comments section under every person’s post, where friends can chime in with their witty (or not so witty) remarks, making for a lot of wholesome fun all around.
• I turned my location off for privacy reasons and encourage everyone who tries BeReal to avoid publishing potentially sensitive content, especially if you have the settings open to the public.
• Rather, you have to take a selfie of your face inside a circle template on the app.

Once the daily notification is sent, users lose the ability to see others’ BeReals from the previous day. Furthermore, users cannot see any of the current day’s BeReals until they upload their own. While on-time BeReals show the time it was uploaded, late BeReals uploaded after the two-minute window only show how late the poster is.

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With BeReal, I don’t feel a lot of pressure to post every day because there is no film or finished product to look forward to. I’ve gotten used to posting when I feel like it, and it’s really nice to be able to look back on your “memories” and remember what you were doing on any given day. It seems the app is trying to discourage users from spending too much time on their posts by not allowing them to have multiple attempts.

• If done correctly, the images are an authentic representation of a person’s day-to-day life.
• Even for late BeReals, a two-minute timer is onscreen and counting down as you take (or retake) pictures.
• To react to someone else’s post on BeReal, you can’t just hit a “heart” or “thumbs up” button.
• In July, right when BeReal reached number one in the US, Instagram launched a dual-camera feature for stories that lets you record or photograph something while also showing your reaction.
• But as each of my friends started using BeReal, they began to rave about how fun it was to keep in touch with friends throughout the day on the app, so I eventually caved to the peer pressure and FOMO.

When a user downloads the BeReal app, they must add their phone number, name and age. At this point, they are asked to create their first BeReal post to start seeing others’ photos too. One of the best features of BeReal is being able to see a collection of your daily posts. In your memories, you will be able to see a outdoor thermometer ios app calendar layout with your photos from every day you completed the task. On BeReal, you can only post photos with the two-box, front and back camera format when you are prompted. There is no option to post additional content, such as other photos, because that would take away from the “in the moment” aspect of the app.

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Yik Yak, which let people read anonymous posts from nearby users, shut down a few years later amid waves of controversy. Your friends can comment and leave RealMojis on your BeReals; strangers on the discovery feed are confined to RealMojis. Unlike TikTok or Instagram, content is wiped from <--more--> the feed every day and replaced by the next batch of posts. Users have the option to save past posts using the Memories features, and old images are not public. Then every day at a different time, the app alerts users that it’s time to take a photo of what they are doing in the moment.

• Because you are required to take photos in the moment, the photos you post and see aren’t retouched, edited or fabricated to show an idealized, unrealistic portrayal of a person.
• When I first downloaded the app, it almost immediately asked me to post my first BeReal, giving me a two-minute countdown to take my picture.
• As with many other social medias, the popularity of BeReal has led to impacts in the workplace.
• Furthermore, users cannot see any of the current day’s BeReals until they upload their own.
• When posting a BeReal, the app takes a picture using both your front and back camera, so other people can see what you look like and where you are.

Overall, Stedman says a key factor to consider when you’re connecting with friends in DMs or on a larger social platform is how exactly you’re going about it. “A big part of why I wrote it is because I was trying to figure out whether or not the internet is a place where we can feel human,” he said. “But the fact of the matter is there is kind of nothing more human than curating a self that you share with the world.” This year alone, downloads have grown by at least 315%, according to data from Apptopia.