What is BeReal and why does everyone now want to be part of it?

Gonza Pastorino25 April

The BeReal phenomenon was born as an alternative to the already well-known social networks: Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, where visually “cool” content predominates and reflects the best moments of users’ lives. BeReal’s popularity surged in 2022, at which point it achieved more than 10 million downloads worldwide, but what made it so appealing?

According to data.ia, 80% of BeReal users are between 16 and 24 years old, who, tired of photos of people posing and full of filters, decided to take the leap and show themselves in social networks as they are in real life.

Ok, here’s what you think.

However, BeReal is a platform full of rules: one of them is that during the day it sends out mass notifications indicating that people have two minutes to take a photo and post it. Another is that two photos will be taken, one with the rear camera and one with the front camera of the cell phone. Also, if you don’t post something in those two minutes and decide to do it later, your contacts will be notified that you made a “late post”.

Your friends for real

“Your friends for real” is their motto, and it’s a clear criticism of other social networks where everyone seems to be at their best. The goal is for all users to publish their photos without a filter and to show themselves “as they are”.

What is precisely worrying about the new social network is its ability to collect information from users, and the ease with which it can build consumer profiles. The randomness with which the platform requests information makes it possible to locate users in what they do on a daily basis, what their daily patterns, tastes and interests are.

Due to its popularity, other social networks have started to imitate some of its functionalities, such as Tik Tok, which added the “Now” section, and Instagram, which added the “Snapshot” section. Faced with this reaction from other networks, BeReal will have to find a way to reinvent itself if it wants to remain relevant.

Opinion article by Nathalia Tarazona.