I first heard about BeReal from my sister who's nine years younger than me and firmly in the Gen Z crowd. Actually, I was strong-armed into taking a we-fie with her to post on the app – apparently, she'd been looking forward to it all day. That got my attention.
If you haven't a clue, BeReal is the latest trending sharing platform. Originating from France, the app was developed in 2020 but has only this year experienced a breakthrough. Downloaded over 28 million times, it's close to edging Facebook out of the U.S. App Store's Top 10. Cool kids all over TikTok are flexing their use of BeReal – and in a sure sign that they're trembling in their boots – TikTok and Instagram are testing their own BeReal clones.
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Here's how it works. BeReal pings you a notification at different times everyday, giving you just two minutes to post a picture. It uses a dual camera function, meaning that you have to upload a picture of whatever's in front of you along with a selfie.
You can probably tell from the name, but BeReal is all about being 'real'. Unedited. Authentic. Unlike Instagram, you're encouraged to follow BeReal's seemingly random schedule instead of curating 'cool' or 'interesting' moments in your life. There are no fancy filters or highlight reels here either, meaning that photos are au naturel, pimples, warts, and all.
But it's far from filler – it's life.
You might be thinking: it all sounds a little rigid, and you have to look ugly and boring on top of it? Why would anyone want to be on BeReal?
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of the endless scroll of news, advertisements, influencers, and just, pure content. TMI, but social media as I know it can bring up all sorts of feelings – want for things I don't need, envy of people I don't even know, anxiety from not looking or being a certain way, or even pure boredom coupled with the compulsion to just keep scrolling to find something to alleviate said boredom.
BeReal is blissfully free of all this. Instead, it's kept to friends, people you actually know. And once you've looked through all their once-a-day posts, your feed ends and there's nothing else to scroll. It's a relief to have a social media app I can check just once and be done with.
And if Instagram is a showcase of the best and brightest moments in your life, then BeReal fills the gaps in between. But it's far from filler – it's life. Between sipping a martini at the beach club and having a girls' day out at a trendy café, we're all doing absolutely mundane things. Writing emails, washing dishes, hanging out in bed. BeReal offers some perspective: that what you see online is not reality, not even close.
Besides all the deep stuff about how BeReal is anti-social media – it's also just plain fun.
Of course, you are able to cheat, and I have cheated on BeReal. I can't count the number of times I've winced at an unflattering double chin in my selfie pic and gone on to retake a photo. I've also ignored BeReal prompts, knowing that I'm about to be doing something more interesting in half an hour's time, instead of – I don't know – lying in bed?
There are consequences, though. Late posts are marked 'Late' and friends can see how many times you've taken and retaken your shots on BeReal. But these so-called penalties aside, I've learned that it's in my interest to ignore the urge to curate, because besides all the deep stuff about how BeReal is anti-social media – it's also just plain fun.
BeReal's your excuse to post silly selfies and dull moments, because no one's here to look good. There's also Realmojis, which are basically selfie emojis which you can snap to react to your friends' posts. Then there's a nifty in-app calendar that stores all your BeReal memories, so you can look back and know you were cutting your toenails at 1.47pm on September 22.
BeReal's not about to cure us of our social media obsession. But in a time when every app and platform is asking us to be better and more perfect, BeReal's the one asking you to be you. And that's a breath of fresh air.
