On Monday, July 25, BeReal reached the top spot on the free app list in the Apple Store. Although initially released in France in 2020 by Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau, the app did not gain popularity in the United States until early 2022. Since the new Apple update and a rise in Widget apps, BeReal has been pushed to third place.
According to the Business of Apps statistics database, “BeReal monthly active users have increased from 921,000 in July 2021 to 21.6 million in July 2022. Just shy of three million people access the app daily.”
The idea behind BeReal is simple and appealing to younger generations. Every day at a random time, a notification is sent to the user, giving them two minutes to take a photo, which the app takes simultaneously from the front and back cameras. Once the time is up, users post a photo with a timestamp and the number of photo retakes to show if they were “being real” or not. Once the next BeReal notification goes off, they can no longer see everyone’s photos from the day before, keeping the authenticity of the app.
Saki Beattie, a freshman with the app, finds it to be an amusing way to connect with friends.
“BeReal gives a realistic view of what people are actually looking at from behind the camera. You get to see what they’re taking a picture of, and then what they look like behind it and it’s funny,” Beattie said.
A Bark survey found that 48 percent of Redwood students have the app and 28 percent use it daily. However, 36 percent of the surveyed students are not interested in downloading the app at all, and senior Jackson Bramlette argues that no social media can be authentic, including BeReal.
“In general, I think that that type of thing is a little bit silly, and we should spend more time off our phones [in general]. I don’t think you can ever be real, if you're [saying], ‘let’s be real now,’” Bramlette said.
In a social media world full of curated feeds and staying aesthetic, an app focused on being genuine is refreshing to many teens, thus the concept is growing more popular. Other apps have copied BeReal’s style, with Snapchat and Instagram adding a “double camera” feature where a user can concurrently take a photo from both cameras. Tiktok is also jumping on the idea with the upcoming Tiktok Now option, where users will get a notification during the day to post a video clip of their surroundings.
Beach Swanson, a junior who has had BeReal since it first gained popularity this spring, emphasizes that BeReal is new and interesting due to its unique format.
“[The app] is a lot less stressful. On Instagram or Snapchat, you’re trying to look your best, but on BeReal it’s agreed by everyone that nobody’s going to look good,” Swanson said.
As for the future of BeReal, it is unclear if it will stay relevant, but Swanson thinks it will.
“I don’t think it’ll die. It’s so simple and easy to do. Maybe people will start missing more days, but it will stay,” Swanson said.
On the other hand, Bramlette believes the app is nearing its decline.
“It might be a fad,” Bramlette said. “I bet [BeReal] will get more popular over time, but it probably won’t be as big as Tik Tok because it’s not quite as addicting. Then I think it will fade a bit.”