It seems the era of posing is beginning to come to an end. Evidence of this is the rise among young people of a new social network called BeReal. Its name is very inspiring and precisely evokes the challenge the platform itself wants to achieve: prioritizing naturalness, spontaneity, and avoiding anything artificial.
The new social network encourages users to post photos of what they are doing at the exact moment they receive the notification on their phone. And it seems the concept works and is winning over users; after all, celebrities like Rosalía are already part of its community.
Another sign confirming BeReal’s popularity is the idea apparently circulating among Instagram’s decision-makers to launch a feature almost identical to it.
How does BeReal work?
The app sends its members one notification per day—just one throughout the entire day and at different times! At that moment, you have only 2 minutes to take a photo of what you are doing right then. This way, without time to prepare the photo, lie about your location, or edit the shot, you show a natural and real image of yourself. If you just woke up and get the notification, you’ll have no choice but to capture the moment and share it with others.
Another interesting feature is that BeReal shares both the photo taken with your rear camera and the one taken with your front camera, which appear together in a single image. You have as many attempts as time allows within those two minutes before sharing.
Otherwise, the way to build community is like all social networks. You can add other contacts to share your snapshots with them and see the photos they have shared. If you don’t yet know which of your friends are on the network, the app lets you add them from your phone’s contact list. Also, you can react to their photos with the emojis available on the platform.
The most downloaded app in Spain
This summer, searches for the term BeReal in Spain have skyrocketed. Checking Google Trends, we see that although the French social network was launched in 2020, since July 2022 there has been an upward trend in the number of times this term has been searched. In August, it reached the top spot as the most downloaded app in Spain, and in October (at the time of writing this post) it remains so.
Looking at the user profile of BeReal, we see that although most users are between 18 and 24 years old, there is also a high percentage of people aged 24 to 35. So, it’s not just a social network aimed at Generation Z; millennials have also joined BeReal, and likely more adults will join, as has happened with other social networks.
A Spaniard among its promoters
He is David Aliagas, a young man from Tarragona who, when he first learned about the social network, messaged one of its founders, Alexis Barreyat, on Instagram to try to join the project, but received no response. Later, Aliagas posted a viral video about BeReal, which finally prompted the social network to contact him and ask him to join the team. Since then, the young Catalan has been traveling around the world to learn about different cultures and thus gain a more complete and realistic view of each market where they want to boost BeReal’s growth.
