Social Performance Measurement For Agencies
How Platforms Have Responded to BeReal
Jordan Hayward posted on 21 October 2022
If you’ve never heard of BeReal, you’re about to! Brace yourself. Even though it seems like it emerged out of nowhere, it is increasingly gaining popularity, and it may soon be a contender among the major platforms.
Locowise are here to give you the low-down on everything you need to know about this new(ish) social media platform, how it works, what the benefits are, and why social media giants such as Instagram and Snapchat have taken the essence of BeReal and put their own spin on it!
What is BeReal?
Based on Social Media Today, BeReal downloads have grown by 315% since the beginning of the year. This places it fourth among the most downloaded social media apps behind Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest.
BeReal allows you to share photos of yourself and your life, but WAIT, there’s a catch. Everyone must post once a day, at the same time. A two-minute timer starts when the user opens the app, giving them a limited amount of time to capture what they’re doing. With BeReal, there is no room for filters or opportunities to stage, overthink, or edit photos. Being real is all that you can do and be on this social media platform!
What makes BeReal different?
You’re probably wondering, what differentiates BeReal from the other social media platforms out there. On platforms like Instagram and TikTok, it seems many people have grown tired of the attention-grabbing, influencer-style content. There’s a lot of talk about how most of the biggest platforms aren’t for sharing with friends anymore, they’re for promoting brands and becoming influencers. BeReal differentiates itself from the rest as it focuses on authenticity rather than virality.
How have platforms responded?
Instagram is internally prototyping a new “Candid Challenges” feature that prompts users to capture and share images of their surroundings each day during different two-minute windows. Does this sound familiar? This is nearly identical to the concept behind BeReal.
Snapchat
Snapchat introduced a feature in its main camera app to take and send photos simultaneously using front- and back-facing cameras. BeReal also has a similar feature that pings users once a day to “BeReal” and take a photo of themselves. We’re waiting to see what Snapchat does next.
TikTok
TikTok became the latest big platform to respond to BeReal’s surge, announcing a new feature called TikTok Now. TikTok Now works very similarly to BeReal. With TikTok Now, you are invited to share what is happening now with your friends by using your device’s front and back cameras”. Each day, you’ll receive a notification urging you to share a video or photo of what you’re doing. Within a week of launching TikTok Now, TikTok began rolling out the feature as a standalone iOS mobile app across global markets.
As people are becoming more and more frustrated with the same social media features being repeated from platform to platform, this is causing them to step back and evaluate what they really want. What BeReal offers could be what users have been searching for all along.
What are your thoughts?
