BeReal is a French social media app that was released in 2020 and developed by Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau. It gained popularity in early to mid-2022. The app's main feature is a daily notification that prompts users to take and share a photo of themselves and their surroundings within a randomly chosen two-minute window. BeReal is known for its emphasis on authenticity, which some have criticized as being overly mundane. The name "BeReal" plays on the idea of users uploading raw and unedited photos, as well as being a pun on the term "b-reel," which refers to a reel of footage in a film or video production.
Website: https://bere.al/en
BeReal is a social media app that operates on a daily cycle. Once a day, the app sends a notification to all users announcing that a two-minute window to post is open. During this window, users can create a post, known as a "BeReal," by taking simultaneous photos with the front and back cameras of their device. The post shows what the user was doing at the time it was taken. The window for posting varies from day to day and is not announced beforehand. Late posts, which are those that are uploaded after the two-minute window has passed, are labeled as such and show how late they were posted. Other users can see how many attempts the poster took to take the BeReal and the location of the poster when the BeReal was taken. Users can only delete their BeReal and post a new one once and cannot post more than one BeReal at a time. BeReal also has a "Discovery" section, which allows users to share their posts with a wider, public audience, although they cannot interact with these posts through comments. BeReal does not have any photo filters or allow for editing, and there are no ads or follower counts. BeReal is designed to compete with Instagram while also encouraging more mindful use of social media. It has a report function that allows users to flag inappropriate content or users. However, it does not have an explicit image moderation process and does not restrict users from posting inappropriate photos.