“BeReal” application users stop whatever they are doing when they hear that notification sound. They start to capture moments of their lives to see what their friends and people all around the world are doing at the same time.

This is how BeReal describes itself on the app’s main page: “Everyday at a different time, everyone is notified simultaneously to capture and share a Photo in 2 Minutes. A new and unique way to discover who your friends really are in their daily life.” Apart from that, you can also connect to other people from all around the globe in the Discovery section.

me waiting for BeReal to go off when I’m actually doing something pic.twitter.com/l7QVl0tkXA

— Meliha (@melihau_) October 9, 2022

No filters, no effects, no custom created items – you just should be real. It is not surprising, the app is also called “Anti-Filter” and “Anti-Instagram” as well.

New social media app “BeReal” released in 2020, and grabbed the attention of youngsters in the beginning of 2022 and hit its peak in late August:

The founders of the application had to wait for 2 years after its creation to understand that this concept they created was promising.

Mirsaid Mirzazadeh, a tech influencer and blogger from Azerbaijan, thinks the pandemic is the cause of delayed popularity of BeReal: “TikTok which requires more activity and constant monitoring of trends helped young people during the pandemic. Everyone unwillingly got distracted from reality and transferred into their own world within seconds. This immersive platform [TikTok] lost its popularity to some extent as people returned to their social lives towards the end of the pandemic. Meanwhile, users who understood the value of their social life and were bored with the virtual world discovered BeReal.”

After such a success story, the basis of many articles about BeReal discuss its functional differences from other platforms and make us see what kind of communication style this application this application offers to its users. But have we thought more deeply about a platform with no filters, no effects, no add-ons – forcing us to take a picture in 2 minutes with a random notification? BeReal was determined to change our habits of “perfection” that we got used to from Instagram, but did it succeed?

Trying to stay real among the others

According to the latest data of Sensor Tower shared in October, BeReal application has already exceeded 53 million installations worldwide just in months. However Instagram has been downloaded approximately 3.8 billion times since 2010, the TikTok over 2.6 billion times worldwide, as reported by Sensor Tower in December, 2020.

TikTok’s attempt to adapt the BeReal concept with its new ‘Now’ feature may indicate that BeReal is successful in its mission. 

According to TikTok, “TikTok Now is the newest way to be entertained and connect with others.” 

Feeling connected and less perfectionist

Most of the Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok users are really attentive about what they post to their feed. The colors, appropriate music decisions for the posts, reels, snaps, TikTok videos are necessary. While this is not relevant for BeReal at all; all you need is one snap of a camera in the moment.

They want to share good aesthetics and chill vibe with their followers. Their own style of taking pictures, unique style of editing help them to create a virtual comfort zone for themselves.

Psychologist and psychotherapist Jamila Rahimli informed us about our habits on trying to be perfect on social media: “The reason why people share filtered, Photoshopped photos on social media is often due to the need to be accepted, appreciated, and liked. Filters are used by users as tools to increase acceptance because the filters lead to more acceptable face and body structures.”

She stated that platforms and projects like BeReal can be effective in getting people to start accepting themselves: “If a young person looks at social media and sees flawless, perfect people and is constantly exposed to it, they will think “I’m the only one with flaws” and their self-confidence and self-esteem would decrease”.

At the same time, Rahimli said that emphasizing naturalness and authenticity in new applications in the virtual world can help people: “The existence of platforms like this can help people change their self-perception reactions and forms in a positive way and help them not to be affected by even the most perfect shared images. In this sense, normalization is very important”.

“However, the presence of such platforms can change the beliefs of the person about themselves. Normalization is a very important factor.”

Eric Dahan, CEO of ‘Open Influence’, in his interview to Fox News, shared his thoughts about what majority of the people expect from social media:

Even the TikTok manager of BeReal shared his grandmother’s experience with connecting not only family, but also international people on the app with this video:

@bereal I guess discovery makes its magic #fyp ♬ original sound – Ian Asher

At the end of the day, everyone has their own story and we need social media platforms due to really specific and individual reasons. Nina Závodská (20) from Slovakia needed to install BeReal not to lose the connection with her friends back in her homeland: “I actually downloaded the app, because I moved to Denmark to study and wanted to keep in touch with my close friend. She will not be able to see me for a long time. It’s super exciting for me and my friend group.”

You just take one shot and you don’t really care about it because everyone takes those shots everyday at the same time with you. It’s not perfect, that’s the pretty thing about this application. On Instagram I don’t post everyday because I want to post the perfect picture. In those apps you only post something that you want other people to see, but BeReal connects the real you with your friends.

Nina Závodská

Although she likes the app a lot, Nina Závodská thinks it depends on her friends whether she will continue to use BeReal: “Maybe after half a year, BeReal won’t be anything anymore. It happens with any application of course”.

Although BeReal managed to appeal to a very large audience in a short period of time, some users find the app boring and think this application likes to follow the “rules” too much.

Nazifa Karimova (23) from Turkey doesn’t believe in BeReal’s aim to make people share their authentic state of mind: “They think they can do this by sharing photos without access to effects or editing. I don’t think that’s the only way to be real. Sharing random photos when daily notification comes is not reality.” 

She added that BeReal notification seems like a homework to her: “This application is more realistic in comparison with others, but the fact that it asks us to share by sending notifications every day, as if demanding us to do homework, allows us to connect to social media and makes us compromise our daily life.”

Future of the being real

We still have time to think about the BeReal app before we fully believe the argument that “it takes us away from having to be perfect”. At this point, the future of this application, its new functions, whether it will be used for advertising and marketing purposes is one of the important topics.

Currently, BeReal does not appear to be a target to be used as a marketing tool for brands and large companies. Because there is no monetization system within the application.

Senior reporter of Gizomodo, Thomas Germain doesn’t think being real is a sustainable notion: “BeReal is in its early stages. It’s possible that kicking profit down the road and avoiding advertising for now could be a winning strategy. But if BeReal lasts long enough, ads seem inevitable. You can’t be real forever”.

In this era, when the virtual world is so confusing, when innovations related to the metaverse add something new to our lives every month, striving for perfection, looking at the ideal lives of others and feeling bad about ourselves are human emotions and reactions.

What does BeReal want to be in the future? No matter its goals and ambitions, there is one thing that is for sure: in the era of expanding and overwhelming social media, it is hard to be real, stay real, or promote real. BeReal is simple, yet time will show if it is competitive enough with other social media giants, such as TikTok or Instagram. With or without the BeReal app, trying to stay real and not distancing ourselves from reality may be one of the few things people can do in the 21st century’s reality.