BeReal is captivating Gen Z’s imagination precisely because it doesn’t want them to utilize theirs but present life as it is.
BeReal is a social networking app that attempts to remove the fake gloss from your tales and provide you with a more genuine method to communicate with them. Instead of professionally managed photographs, BeReal claims to provide “a fresh and unique approach to uncover who your friends truly are in their everyday lives.”
It operates by providing users a daily push message stating that it is “time to BeReal.” A two-minute timer is ticking away. Users must let the app capture a picture using their smartphone camera and upload it to BeReal during these 180 seconds of utter horror.
Users can post after the two-minute time limit has expired, but their friends will be notified that they did so “late.” They can choose not to upload at all, but they will not be displaying their friends’ images on that particular day. On BeReal, there is no such thing as lurking.
The software will capture two synchronized photographs, one inset in the other, using the front and back-facing cameras, so users’ friends – or everyone, if shared publicly – can see both what they look like and where they are. Every second spent frantically seeking for the least-worst lighting and camera angle while frantically searching for the hairbrush is a second wasted on the chore of cleaning the frame of private things and/or random debris.
Users have no control over when BeReal gives the daily prompt, disrupting any remaining efforts to preserve the appearance of a cool, glamorous, or even somewhat fascinating existence.
Although BeReal may still convincingly pitch itself as the flawed counterpoint to Instagram’s pristine ideals, Instagram has become a messier world. It will be no surprise if it implements a BeReal-style function by autumn.
