Liz Truss has been named as the leader of the Conservative Party, which makes her the new prime minister of the UK.
Yet, it was one social media app that captured the nation’s reactions to the news in real time – and it wasn’t Twitter.
BeReal, the “anti-Instagram” app loved by Gen Z, sent its followers a notification to share their Bereal moment of the day seconds after Truss was announced as the new leader.
The way BeReal works is it sends a push notification and users then have two minutes to take a picture of what they are doing in that moment – using the front and back screens of their phone cameras – and share it with the friends who follow them on the app.
Today’s push notification came through just after 12.30pm when Truss was announced as the new prime minister, thus capturing reactions to the news from its British users.
“BeReal knew exactly what it was doing there,” one person on Twitter wrote.
Another added: “Disappointed Liz didn’t stop mid speech to do her BeReal.”
A third said: “BeReal made the notification go off just after Liz Truss was announced as the next PM so that our despair at the Tories and the state of this country can be captured forever.”
Someone else posted a photo of their BeReal and wrote that it was “beautiful timing”, while another said: “BeReal going off the second Liz Truss was announced as the new Prime Minister is the worst thing it’s ever done.”
Many users thought the move from the app was intentional, with one person writing: “BeReal going off whilst we all watch the news in disgust was definitely intentional.”
While another said: “The timing of bereal when Liz Truss was elected as PM was astounding.”
The Independent has contacted BeReal for comment.
