You shouldn’t be sleeping on BeReal. Perhaps unbeknownst to many, BeReal is the latest trending social app that’s quickly gaining ground on the download charts, something that might soon catch the ire of platforms like Facebook and Instagram, setting itself up to be the next biggest features xerox-project after the rise of TikTok.

Reality Of The Situation

As implied in its name, BeReal was founded in 2020 by French Entrepreneur Alexis Barreyatis and is an app that focuses on real and authentic connection, providing users with a raw, unedited view on social sharing, which is designed to help people to take a step back from the overly curated Feeds of other apps.

As BeReal explains:

“BeReal is the simplest photo sharing app to share once a day your real life in photo with friends. Every day at a different time, everyone captures a photo within 2 minutes. Capture and post in time to discover what your Friends are up to.”

How this works is that, once a day, users are prompted to share an image of what they’re up to, in which they would then have two minutes to share a response. The app lets users take pictures using both front and rear cameras simultaneously, providing a near 360-degree image that lets you see what others are doing and where they are. The low time-limit prevents you from staging or editing shots, keeping things real.

It’s a very straightforward process and it’s catching on. App downloads have increased by as much as 315% since the start of the year, according to statistics from Apptopia. If you take a look at the graphs, it’s undeniable that BeReal is gaining momentum. Currently at around 7.41 million installs, BeReal’s graph is on a sharp incline, clearly depicting rising desires for more honest and authentic depictions of people’s lives and experiences. BeReal doesn’t want any of the edited, filtered, and warped photos as featured on most major platforms. data.ai has also ranked BeReal as the top 4th app in the US, UK, and France for Q1 2022, only trailing behind Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest.

BeReal has the potential to be the next big app trend, which’ll no doubt put it in Meta’s crosshairs, especially when you consider that Meta is very much keen on winning back younger users. BeReal would be an optimal target to mimic key features since current statistics do point that majority of the app’s users are Gen Z.

The Wrap

We all know that Meta has repeatedly tried to slow TikTok’s momentum by essentially replicating some of its most notable features and functions. It wouldn’t be surprising to hear of Meta doing the same with BeReal the moment the latter starts getting bigger. However, things might not turn out quite as well for Meta if it does end up trying to do what BeReal currently does. Why? Because Meta isn’t structured in the same way – largely dependent on its ads and algorithms, BeReal’s ‘no-edit’ format will greatly cripple Meta’s attempts at monetizing its core features. Besides, Meta’s rep of copy-pasting features from other apps won’t do it good should it decide to try and make a BeReal clone.

If you think about it, the very nature of BeReal would defeat the purpose of any platform that’ll attempt to copy what it does. The moment that they try, they’re no longer keeping things real.