BeReal

BeReal is a fairly new and free social media app that allows users to post once daily, showing followers what they’re doing within the random two-minute window that the app deems as time to “BeReal” . The goal of the app is to combat the highly edited, perfectly curated feed that is common in apps like Instagram and Facebook. As described on their website, BeReal allows you to “discover who your friends really are in their daily life” , connecting you to your friends and family in an authentic way.

BeReal logo

History of BeReal

The app was first launched in December 2019, thanks to its French creators Alexis Barreyat (former GoPro employee) and Kévin Perreau. However, it wasn’t until a few years later in early 2022 when it started gaining popularity, especially among college campuses due largely in part to their college ambassador program . In March 2021, the app had only 10,000 active daily users, which has now skyrocketed to more than 15 million today. This drew in interest from investors such as Xavier Niel and in June 2022 Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and DST pooled another $30 million to its funding - the app is now valued at $600 million according to the Financial Times .

Features

Front and Back Camera

In order to capture everything about what a person might be doing at a certain point in time, the daily photo taken uses the front and back camera, allowing users to see their friends' faces and their surroundings . Although you can retake these pictures, the app has a feature that allows you to see how many times a person retook their BeReal, in order to foster that sense of transparency. It also allows for late posting (that is, past the two-minute window) but will show at the top of the post how many minutes or hours behind the actual scheduled time it was.

Reactions

BeReal also acts in a similar way to other social media apps, allowing users to interact with their friends by reacting and commenting on posts. The reactions are similar to likes on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter, but instead of just double tapping the user is able to react with a picture of themselves shown in a small circle at the bottom of the post . The comments are essentially the same as other social media platforms, where followers can type their thoughts and the poster can reply. These reactions as well as comments are visible to all followers.

Memories

Past BeReals cannot be viewed in a user's feed by their followers, and each one disappears when the new notification is sent out. However, the user can see their own past BeReals in a feature they call “Memories”. This is comparable to apps like Snapchat that store saved snaps in your memories, showing the date each one was taken. On BeReal, the memories feature looks like a calendar, showing you all your past BeReals on each day you took them . Starting in 2022 you could also access your BeReal recap, showing all your past BeReals in one video, and highlighting statistics like who you interacted with most and how often you were on time.

Discover

Not only are users able to interact with their followers’ posts, but they can also view posts shared in the “Discover” section, where BeReals from around the world are publicly shown. The user can choose if their post will be shown to only their friends or the public. There is also an option to send friend requests to people shown in the discover section, which can encourage users to branch out and meet new people, and since the location on these are visible as well, you can see who is posting in your area .

No Followers

What especially distinguishes BeReal from other social media platforms is the way its design displays users as equal in terms of their status on the app. There are no followers or visible friends. Only each individual person can see how many friends they have. There is also no feed on each profile, as the posts disappear to followers . There is no such thing as a BeReal influencer, and it is not intended as a way for people to make money off of it or gain any sort of popularity, unlike apps such as Instagram and Tik Tok.

No Advertisements

The app does not currently make any profit, as it is free to users and does not utilize any advertisements. This makes their purpose clear; it is just an app to post what you do in your daily life without anything else taking away from that authenticity .

Reception

BeReal has become one of the most popular social media apps in the past year especially among target demographic, Gen Z. Growing up with apps like Instagram and Snapchat, BeReal attempts to combat “social media fatigue” for this generation by acting as a rather “boring” alternative, as most only open the app a few times a day. The longevity of the app is uncertain, and writers from Wired claim that “BeReal represents the latest iteration in the cycle of social media sites that spring from the push-and-pull tension of authenticity and performance” . The nature of the app encourages users to continue to use the app daily, although if BeReal fails to continue trending its users may give up on “being real” altogether.

Despite its major popularity, there are many who doubt the legitimacy of the company’s claimed success in authenticity. In a recent Buzzfeed article, different users comment on their experience with the app. 25 year old Kelly P. stated “It showed me last night that a bunch of our friends were celebrating one of my best friend’s engagements without me.” BeReal aims to show people that no one’s life is as glamorous as it seems, but the fear of missing out may still arise when friends feel left out of plans. When comparing BeReal with other social media apps, writer Maeve Brown claims that “fake authenticity is worse than acknowledging curation” . Despite its best efforts to encourage transparency, some feel that it can often have the opposite effect.

Ethical Concerns and Controversies

Child Safety

BeReal is extremely popular among teens, which can be cause for concern due to some of its features. The app allows you to post unfiltered photos of anything, and there are no child restrictions. This means that a child may come across an inappropriate photo, especially on the discover tab where posts from around the world are shown from unknown users. The only child protection feature is the age requirement of 13, which is still underage. This means that a 13-year old may be interacting with the same content that a 30-year old would. The only way to control hate speech, pornography, racism, etc. would be to report it directly to the app which is not a preventative measure. There is also a lack of parental controls, allowing children to connect with strangers via the discovery feature by sending them a friend request .

Location Sharing

After a BeReal is posted, the location in which it was taken is automatically shared to followers. Although this can be changed in the settings tab, new users may unknowingly be sharing their location if they are unaware of this feature before posting. This is a potential threat to security and privacy, especially if posted on the discovery section, where people other than their friends have the ability to view their posts (and in turn, their location). Because of the front and back camera, the location that a person is in at that exact moment can be seen, so if someone is familiar with that area then it could potentially be harmful .

Late Posting

The notification to “be real” never expires, meaning users are allowed to post after the designated two minute interval. This has caused controversy as it differs from the “real” aspect of showing followers exactly what you’re doing at a given moment. This presents an opportunity for users to post beyond that interval when they know they’ll be doing something exciting, rather than posting the everyday task they might have been doing if they posted on time. According to Monica Chin from The Verge, because of this, there is little to stop people from using the app the same way they use Instagram stories, with posts being curated in a similar way .

Free Speech

The unclear terms of service found in the app have potential for creating issues regarding free speech. As noted in the terms, users are encouraged to report “illicit or inappropriate contents”, avoiding liability by claiming they are a “hosting company” rather than a publisher of the content. It also requires users not to post photos including “content of a sexual and/or child pornographic nature, [or material] calling for hatred, terrorism, violence in general or against a group of people in particular, inciting others to endanger themselves or provoking suicide.” This policy is similar to that of other social media platforms, however, the terms are not specific as to what constitutes as undesired content, creating confusion as to which posts can be censored. Although the app is able to remove something they deem as falling under this category, it is not known whether the user will receive a warning if their post is going to be removed or if they will have the opportunity to appeal . This lack of transparency within the terms of service leaves the user with little knowledge of why or how their content may be censored.

Lack of Communication

BeReal is a startup that has experienced issues regarding glitches and outages with little to no explanation from the company. In September of 2022, the app experienced a multiple hour-long outage, with the only explanation being a tweet stating “yup, we’re on it.” This left users feeling frustrated, as they took to Twitter to express their frustration and were met with no answers to their questions . BeReal declined to answer questions regarding the cause of the outage, how widespread it was, and when it would be resolved. Throughout 2022 the app faced different glitches such as delays in letting users post as well as not letting users accept friend requests . These glitches, however, have become minimal as the app has increased in popularity and continues to develop.

Data Storing

As stated in the terms of service, BeReal can store user photos for 30 years in which they can reuse in any form, such as ad campaigns, videos, compilations, etc. This means that young kids may be rewarded for posting embarrassing or private content that can be used in advertisements with potential for future consequences. Some of these photos may also contain private information, which poses a security risk. The front and back camera allows for all surroundings to be captured, and the user could be posting without knowing fully what their image contains and how that can be used by someone else to gather information about their location. The use of cookies can also pose a data gathering risk, as the use of these third-party cookies means that the user's activity is being tracked to provide them with personalized ads . This is common amongst other social media platforms, though it still has potential to be invasive, especially if that user is uncomfortable with large corporations using their data.

Privacy Breaches

Due to the nature of the random two-minute window that prompts users to “be real”, it is likely that someone may be capturing photos of private information such as sensitive documents on their work computer and unknowingly sharing it with their friends. This could lead to a serious privacy breach for that company. The spontaneity that the app encourages allows for issues like this to arise, where the front and back camera may be capturing images that the user was unaware of when they posted. Hackers have been taking advantage of remote working by infiltrating Zoom and Microsoft Teams to eavesdrop on private information spoken at meetings. According to Josh Yavoor, chief information security officer at Tessian, it is inevitable that individuals will take advantage of a weak spot on any platform, not just BeReal . BeReal does not currently have any information for users regarding how they can be mindful of their posts when it comes to sensitive information, though BeReals can be deleted after posting if needed.

Influence on Pop Culture

Being one of the most popular apps of 2022, BeReal has had an impact on pop culture and how society interacts with social media platforms. The app encourages authenticity, unlike Instagram and Facebook, though it seems to have had an effect on those platforms as well, where users are posting less filtered content in recent years. Other apps are attempting to shift to a more “close friends only” approach like social media company Clubhouse, which thinks that small social communities are its next big thing. It launched a new feature called “houses”, which are smaller audio rooms where you can interact with only your favorite people. According to CEO Paul Davidson, the best social experiences are “small and curated.” Another platform called Niche connects people based on their shared interests, which co-founder Zaven Nahapetyan states “could lead to a better social media experience than just connecting people who went to school together or are family members” . Social media could potentially shift to a more personal and intimate experience, leaving it unclear if that is a direct influence of BeReal itself, or if society has simply “outgrown the cultures of likes-tallying perfectionism associated with mainstream social media networks” .

A more direct effect, however, can be seen with some apps like Tik Tok taking exact components of BeReal and incorporating them into their platform. In September of 2022, Tik Tok announced that it would be launching a new feature called “Tik Tok Now”, which is essentially the exact concept as BeReal, where users use the front and back camera to post what they’re doing at a random time during the day . The two apps are very different, as BeReal is listed under social media and Tik Tok under entertainment. It appears that Tik Tok is now attempting to create more direct interaction among friends using a similar strategy as BeReal. Social media apps are consistently stealing ideas from one another, like Instagram copying its “Story" feature from Snapchat, as well as its “Reels” feature from Tik Tok. There is potential for this feature to gain popularity within the app, as seen by BeReal’s success, but because it already exists on its own platform it is uncertain if it will gain enough traction.