Food&Drink Editor Chloë Hyde breaks down why the app may change our relationship with social media for the better
A new social media platform called BeReal is currently rising rapidly in popularity with Gen Z. Though the application launched in 2019, it is only in the past few months that users across the globe have boosted this platform to the scale of other social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok.
So, what makes this platform different from others? Other social media have been increasingly criticised for their detachment from one’s authentic self. Where Instagram encourages curation (such as having to take multiple different photos to find the perfect one), BeReal’s main aim is to show the reality of your life with one image a day.
BeReal’s main aim is to show the reality of your life with one image a day
As we know, most social media have a multitude of filters for their stories and posts, which include artificial makeup, teeth whitening and tanning to name a few. Though these filters can be a bit of fun, they also create unrealistic beauty expectations for its users which can have a harmful affect after a prolonged period of consumption. It is probably fair to say that a lot of young people have grown up alongside the advances in social media, and now would find it quite difficult to avoid daily scrolling on social media.
In a bid to change this, BeReal offers no way of altering the images you post, promoting a much more authentic and natural version of your life to be shared with your friends. A very unique aspect of the app, which enhances the realness they are striving for, is the unique method in which you post. BeReal sends out a notification to everybody at the same time once every day and gives you a two-minute countdown to capture your image. In this time, you can retake your images as many times as you wish, as long as it is within the countdown. This includes both a front-facing selfie, and a picture from the back of your phone camera.
BeReal sends out a notification to everybody at the same time once every day and gives you a two-minute countdown to capture your image
This instantaneous upload process highlights the realities of daily life– in my experience of the app, I received a notification while I was writing this very article, and the previous day as I was writing an essay plan. I would rarely post the realities of my degree on other social media platforms unless I thought it was something of interest, like a photo which I posted customarily with my completed undergraduate dissertation. Some of my friends’ posts included them on the way to campus, mopping floors and writing emails at work.
If you miss the two-minute countdown, you are still able to post after the allotted time, but the app notifies your friends that you have posted late so they know you will not have taken that photo in that moment. Comments and reactions are aspects extracted from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but with the addition of a live reaction image named a ‘RealMoji’ which allows users to react to their friend’s posts with a real-time image. The lack of likes reflects recent steps taken by Instagram to hide the number of likes a certain post receives in order for users to become less obsessive with them.
In terms of feed however, it is only as lengthy as the number of friends you have
In terms of feed however, it is only as lengthy as the number of friends you have, and subsequently, only those of which who have posted that day. Because of this, you hardly spend hours constantly scrolling and refreshing the app for new content, rendering the whole process much less addictive. Having noted this, there is the option to share your BeReal post among the whole world-wide community if you choose to, meaning hundreds of thousands of people will be able to see your post. One aspect I think is potentially harmful is the location services available with the ‘Discovery’ part of the app. The real-time posting element, coupled with the real-time image means that if you are not careful, random users could locate you in that very moment, especially if you are out in public spaces which are easily recognisable.
It is understandable why many people may not have encountered BeReal before. The output of posts is much fewer, you cannot really find your friends apart from sharing your username on other social media platforms, or indeed your phone contacts, and it is hardly geared towards having the most followers possible. BeReal is much better suited to your close friends who are actually interested in your day-to-day life, rather than extended distant connections who may follow your Instagram profile.
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