Be Realistic! The Impact Of One App On Our Social Media Habits

There are no edits made to the image, no carefully worded captions, and no carefully arranged flat lays. When the time comes to “be real,” all you have to do is snap out of it.

Ways to “Be Real”

The idea behind the app is straightforward: you can stay in touch with loved ones by adding them as contacts, and at some unspecified time every day, the app will send out a notification to alert you to any new messages. There is only two minutes left to take a BeReal and check in with your friends. Then, you quickly unlock your phone, launch the appropriate app, and begin recording your activity.

The truth is, many of us will experience these times as genuine. A snapshot of our offices, complete with Slack messages and disorganised desks, or our morning coffee and the train platform as we head to work.

However, there are times when we’re actually in the middle of something fun when the notification pops up, and you might get a glimpse of things like concerts, trips to amusement parks, or even dates. We’re only human when we’re able to balance work and play.

Massive Amounts Of People Are Fans

Prior to the pandemic in January of 2020, French programmers Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau founded BeReal. The app did not become popular until the latter half of 2021, and by July of the following year, it had risen to the top of the App Store’s charts. BeReal’s total downloads on iOS and Android reached 53 million on October 11th, a significant increase from the 20 million installations reported in July.

Promoting the app in such a way has been the key to their meteoric rise in popularity. The company can’t exactly promote itself through Instagram ads because it wants to create an app free of typical influencer culture.

Instead, they’ve put together an appealing ambassadorship programme. The BeReal app ambassador programme offers college students around the world the opportunity to promote the app and earn money.

An applicant’s duties include “hosting parties, managing a marketing budget, identifying key moments on campus for us to get involved, representing BeReal’s mission, and executing creative activations,” among other things.

Simply put, it’s BeReal’s take on “influencers,” albeit without the usual filtering and curation.

Businesses Recognize the Trend

Marketers are always on the lookout for fresh approaches to their campaigns, and BeReal stands out like a beacon.

While brands may think it will be easy to work with the app, they will find that it is much more competitive than they anticipated. People flock to BeReal as a refuge from the carefully curated and ad-filled feeds of competing apps like Instagram, TikTok, and others.

If the app wants to keep its intended user base happy, it’s highly unlikely that it will ever work directly with BeReal. However, that doesn’t mean that brands haven’t experimented with the new medium. Chipotle and E.l.f. Cosmetics are two companies that have figured out how to connect with their customers by using the BeReal platform to share content from their various internal teams.

However, both companies’ plans quickly ran into an obstacle. There are restrictions on the number of connections you can make within the BeReal app because the company’s primary goal is for users to form meaningful relationships with one another, not to amass a large number of followers.

Both Chipotle and E.l.f. reached their “friend” limit quickly and are currently unable to add any more fans. Because of this, many companies in 2023 are opting out of app promotion entirely.

As the phrase goes, “To imitate is to compliment.”

There is a universal law that states that wherever innovation occurs, imitation will follow. In the wake of BeReal’s meteoric rise to fame, competitors like Instagram and TikTok as well as Snapchat have introduced their own versions of the app’s signature front-and-back posting format.

We can assure you that this has not been overlooked, especially with the introduction of Instagram’s ‘Dual.’ Since the leak of Twitter’s upcoming updates, users have taken to the platform to discuss the social media giant’s perceived lack of innovation.

While the rest of us scramble to keep up with constant platform updates, why should Instagram get to rip off every other platform’s features? Jes Cervantes, of Twitter, wrote something. It’s ironic that Instagram and other social media platforms are trying to mimic an app that actively competes with them.

After being asked about the new feature, a spokesperson for Meta said it was still in testing and it was unclear if it would be made public.

If Meta decides to roll out the feature in a future update, it will be a brave move, but it may cost them users in the long run.