BeReal: A Real Pushback to Instagram?

BeReal is the newest social media platform to take off, having experienced exponential growth in 2022. If you haven’t heard of the app, BeReal, coined as the “anti-Instagram,” has a simple premise:

Every day at a different time, users are asked to post a photo of exactly what they’re doing (which also includes an inset selfie) within 2 minutes of receiving the prompt to post. Everyone on the app is asked to post at the same time, and once you do, you can see all of your friends’ posts that day. The app aims to show life’s real moments, not its curated ones, and unlike mainstream social media platforms, users have no follower count or likes to monitor.  

Growing at a rate of 315% in the first few months of 2022 and amassing three-quarters of its total app downloads during that period, the app is gaining momentum on college campuses, making it likely that its popularity will trickle down to teenagers if the app maintains this pace.

For now, there are no advertisers, and the app wants influencers to stay on other social media apps and away from BeReal. But there are questions about whether the platform can continue to live in accordance with its mission. After all, many of the same Silicon Valley investors who have been involved in Meta and Twitter have invested in BeReal, and questions loom about how the app will drive revenue without advertising.

We’ll be watching closely to see if BeReal’s sincere approach to social media becomes a relic of the past, or if its commitment to authenticity represents a turning point in how younger generations use social media.