A new social media app is gaining in popularity around college campuses. Here’s the catch - BeReal only gives you two minutes to post a photo.
Paris-based BeReal is attracting users because interactions are casual and quick. The company grabs people’s attention because every day the app chooses a different time to let users know to capture and share a photo within two minutes.
The company’s slogan is that it is a “new and unique way to discover who your friends really are in their daily life.”
Instagram and TikTok are constantly facing additional competition as Gen Zers and Millennials are seeking different social media experiences, especially more informal interactions.
Back in 2020, Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau, French entrepreneurs, launched the app to appeal to a different audience. Unlike Instagram, you can not edit images or curate your feed.
BeReal does allow people to post photos later if they miss the alert, but those photos are marked for being late.
Users of the app can only see other photos by uploading their two photos first.
Unlike all the other social media apps, photos can not gain popularity from likes or from using filters. While people will spend several hours or even pay for a professional photographer to post photos on Instagram or other apps, BeReal is encouraging people to be authentic and not seek the perfect photo.
In some ways, BeReal is the antithesis of Instagram because users will share what they are currently doing and not spend time creating the most attractive or beguiling shot.
BeReal reached nearly four million downloads between January 2021 and February 202, according to data from Sensor Tower, an app analytics data company. The company has raised money from venture capital companies such as Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners and DST Global Partners (Not DST Global), which led a $36.6 million Series A round in June 2021.
Users of the new app are giving it rave reviews online. One user said on Twitter that BeReal “is the best thing to happen to me this year.”
What makes BeReal stand out is that people are not seeking to be social media influencers. One user stated “bereal is the best social media cos it’s just 2 pictures a day and zero discourse."
One BeReal fan, Ella, said the app is now making the rounds at Georgetown University because “bereal is a noun and a verb.”
Another BeReal user said the interactions he has on the social media app are rewarding because “they’re just so wholesome and cute like there is simply nothing i enjoy more i think" and he enjoys sending emoticons.
BeReal is also attracting other people to the app who are not college or university students, including other generations.
Jean de La Rochebrochard, a managing partner at Kima Ventures, a French VC firm, said his family members are also using the app.
