Now, it’s BeReal that lets you peek into people’s lives throughout the day.” “I think Snapchat briefly was that space until my friends stopped using it. “We’re always looking to connect with friends in a casual way,” said Kristin Merrilees, 20, a junior at Barnard College and BeReal user, who also writes about culture and the internet. The app recently closed on a Series B funding round and is expected to quadruple its valuation to around $630 million, reported Business Insider in early May. It launched in December 2019, but nearly 75 percent, or 7.67 million, of BeReal downloads occurred this year, according to recent Apptopia data shared with TechCrunch. This year, the buzzy, VC-backed darling is BeReal, which is currently the second most-downloaded social networking app on the App Store, behind TikTok. It shot to the top of the App Store for a few weeks, but the hype soon subsided. Later that year, Poparazzi, an app that encouraged users to take paparazzi-like shots of their friends, took off on TikTok. Dispo benefited from co-founder David Dobrik’s YouTube fame, but a scandal led investors to quickly distance themselves from the startup, even with Dobrik resigning. ![]() In early 2021, the app du jour was Dispo, which simulated the experience of using a disposable camera by having users wait for photos to develop. “If you want to be an influencer you can stay on TikTok and Instagram.”Įvery year or so, a hot new social startup emerges from the woodwork with an overconfident vision of a better, more authentic way of being online. ![]() “BeReal won’t make you famous,” the app declares. In this case, it’s authenticity and an ad-free experience. The feeds are updated once a day and posts expire once the next BeReal alert is sent out, presumably for users to put their phones down and live their “real” lives after a few minutes on the app.īeReal falls into the genre of “anti-Instagram” apps, novelty photo platforms that attempt to fulfill a niche social function that Instagram lacks. Upon posting, two feeds are unlocked, one personalized with friends’ posts and one a Discovery feed that features strangers in the midst of mostly mundane tasks. ![]() Users can add a caption, comment on friends’ day-of posts, and interact through RealMojis, or personalized reaction photos. Every day, users are randomly prompted to snap a photo within a two-minute time frame, although the window to post remains open for hours. There is, so BeReal claims, a distinctly authentic self behind social media’s smoke and mirrors, waiting to be revealed.īeReal’s premise is simple. Once a day at random, I am prompted to “be real,” to capture my unfiltered life synchronously through my phone’s selfie and back camera. BeReal, as the app’s name suggests, wants me to post my truth.
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