“Your friends for real.” This is the new social network that has already depopulated in the United States and is ready to keep us glued to the phone even more, if possible. Instagram and TikTok were not enough, BeReal arrives in Italy too, the social network that wants to be a real hymn to spontaneity. You can forget about filters, followers and hearts that count as appreciation: only one photo per day is published on the platform within two minutes. End. «Every day at a different time – reads the app – everyone is notified at the same time to take and share a photo in 2 minutes. A new and unique way to find out who your friends really are in their daily life ».
What is Bereal
Launched in France two years ago, at the beginning of 2020, the app wanted to be a sort of antidote to Instagram and was immediately renamed the «social of honest photos». In July it became the most downloaded free application on the American App Store and, two years after its launch, today it has about 30 million users, raising a total of 115 million dollars in investments. Between the two quarrels, therefore, – Instagram and TikTok who fight each other with stories and direct -, the third enjoys.
How does it work
The platform invites users to post only one photo per day. The app sends an alert to subscribers when it’s time to take the picture and share it with other users. The timetable varies from day to day and the content can consist of a selfie or a front photo, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the timing, or rather, the spontaneity: get back in those two minutes to respond to the alert. In fact, if you publish the image after the two minutes have elapsed, the photos are marked as “late” and you cannot view the posts of your friends.
“It won’t make you famous”
BeReal bets on a different strategy than other traditional social media, with the aim of collecting everyday snapshots: a place to share unfiltered stories from friends and relatives, without ‘likes’, hashtags or sponsorships. The app developers themselves have stated that “BeReal will not make you famous”. Rather, the focus is on intimacy and it’s okay to show yourself imperfect: there are no standards here.