Every 24 hours, Kevin Lee gets a notification to post a selfie at a seemingly random point in time.
“It’s time to be real,” said the alarm on his phone, and the two-minute countdown began.
Some mornings, the 27-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles gets a notification before he wakes up. “I looked bad. But that’s what I did,” Mr Lee said.
He was one of nearly 6.8 million people who downloaded BeReal over the past two years, according to mobile market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The app — promoted by its makers as an authentic, unfiltered alternative to featured posts on Instagram and TikTok — has become popular among young people, especially college students. According to researcher Apptopia, most of BeReal’s users, such as Mr. Lee, have joined this year.
BeReal prompts users to take one photo per day using their smartphone’s front and rear cameras.
Photo: CORDILIA JAMES/Wall Street Journal
The French app for iPhone and Android phones sends users a ping every 24 hours to take pictures with the smartphone’s front and rear cameras. The timing of prompts is unpredictable for users and changes daily, and photo filters are not allowed. Unlike the most dominant social media platforms, it also has no ads and no visible follower count.
BeReal’s limited approach to posting and reading is an alternative to apps like TikTok and Instagram, which have more than 1 billion monthly active users and invests money and engineers to make the product more appealing to users. BeReal says it differently: post quickly, roll over and start your life. For some Gen Z users, it’s an appealing idea.
Irish student Nathan Carey, 22, joined the app after hearing about it from his university friends three weeks ago. He said the rather mundane posts — people watching TV or cooking — let him see the real lives of his friends, not through curated images.
“You might be more vulnerable,” Mr Carey said.
reality
After receiving the “BeReal” reminder, the user has two minutes to take a photo. If they’re too busy or in places where they shouldn’t be taking selfies — like the bathroom — BeReal allows users to post outside of that time frame, but there’s a catch: The app tells their friends that the photo is late and shows exactly how late they are . This leads to people taking pictures in class and on the road, but many times BeReal ends up with images of photographers looking down at their feet.
Users must post on BeReal before they can see other people’s photos.
Photo: Darwin Brown/Wall Street Journal
BeReal prevents users from lurking: To view anyone’s images, users must first share their own. If users post late, they don’t have as much time to view other people’s photos; when the next notification goes out, all posts reset. The purpose is to share real life with friends when it happens.
Users and social media experts say BeReal aims to embrace spontaneity and authenticity. It’s a mix of Wordle (a popular word game you can only play once a day) and Meta Platforms’ Instagram (minus those filters). The short lifespan of posts draws comparisons to Snapchat.
The combination resonated with people, who began to shy away from the curated photos and videos that dominate many social networks.
The biggest social media apps, including TikTok and Instagram, started out as a way for people to share updates with their friends. But as these apps evolved to have more idealized versions of people’s lives, large creator economies flourished on the platform, with influencers posting highly curated content to attract followers and sponsors.
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Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center in Newport Beach, Calif., said the change meant users were often seeing more commercial posts, creating a loophole for apps like BeReal. Programs can try to fill this hole. However, she said BeReal and other new social media networks will only have staying power if people and their friends keep using the app.
“It’s fun to try a lot of apps, but the point of social media apps is to connect with others,” Dr Rutledge said.
A spokesman said BeReal wanted users to portray their lives, not share images to build influence. “We want people to feel good about themselves and their lives.”
One hit miracle or stay here?
BeReal users can use the RealMoji feature to react to other posts and recreate emojis in them.
Photo: Darwin Brown/Wall Street Journal
For some, the rise of BeReal Similar to other once popular apps like Yo and Frontback. The latter app allows users to take photos with the front and rear cameras, then combine the two photos into a single image. It skyrocketed in popularity after launching in 2013, but shut down two years later when users moved on to the next big thing.
While downloads are a good measure of an app’s success, the data doesn’t predict whether an app will have staying power, said Niklas Myhr, a professor of social media, digital and global marketing at Chapman University in Orange, California. .
Dr Meier said once popular apps could fail if they rely too heavily on one feature without developing more tools to keep users engaged. This is the case with Yo, which was launched in 2014 just to let users say “Yo” to friends. The app added profiles, links, and hashtags, but the update wasn’t enough to save it.
While Mr. Carey loves BeReal’s daily dopamine rush, he hopes the app offers something more to make it more appealing beyond the “RealMoji” button. The feature allows users to react to posts by taking a selfie, rather than tapping a heart or thumbs up icon.
Currently, Mr Carey has been checking the app because his friends are there.
“It’s definitely a current trend for me,” he said.
Write to Dalvin Brown at dalvin.brown@wsj.com and Cordilia James at cordilia.james@wsj.com
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