When it comes to the vast pool of social sharing apps at our disposal, one trait is overwhelmingly common: they give us the chance to curate what we want to share the world. We can give time and thought to this, whether in an Instagram photo dump or across TikTok.
BeReal, created by Alexis Barreyat, quite literally is asking people to stop the curation and, well, be real. Its digital campaign asks people: "What if social media was different?"
Still a social photo sharing app, BeReal has removed components that the rest of the social media cohort like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat are dedicated to including likes, filters, and followers. Instead, users take a daily photo of exactly what they are doing at a random moment, with a short time limit to promote consistency and honesty (to a degree). In the French company's words, the app positions itself as "uncontrollable" — however that lands with you — and prioritises "no bullshit."
Sounds confusing, perhaps, but here's a tutorial on how to use BeReal. Then you can decide if this mode of sharing is the right one for you.
1. Download the app.
You can find the BeReal app in the Apple Store or Google Play. To register, you'll have to put in a phone number for verification, as well as a full name and username, after which you can begin to use the app.
2. Add contacts and find friends.
The app will then send a pop-up asking to access your contacts. The whole point is to share with your friends, so allowing this would probably be the best way to use it — although, as I found later, you can share photos publicly with strangers, too. Just before you post, you can set your post to share with friends or the public.
3. You can share a photo immediately – and this step has some caveats.
As soon as you download the app, you start sharing. Each day at a random time, you get a two-minute time limit to take a photo of whatever it is you are doing or where you are in that moment. At the same time you take this photo, a selfie is automatically taken, too. You may want to be prepared for that part (I was not, thus the blurred selfie in the picture above). But what you're sharing is a combination of the two: your life, and face, in the moment.
You can make the selfie your primary picture, with your surroundings the secondary, depending on how you flip your camera. This will happen everyday, with push notifications (if you've allowed it), telling you it's time to take your BeReal for the day.
4. You can also delete your BeReal post.
Once the picture is posted, you can click on it and press the three dots in the corner. There, you have the option to delete your post. The app doesn't exactly encourage that, though, asking a bunch of questions as to why you're opting to do this.
5. Discover public content.
Under the discovery tab, you can also see public content, which you can also react to with a range of "RealMojis", which are unique emojis but given a name aligned with the "realness" of the app — the emojis are variations of the selfies you've taken yourself. There's also a stipulation here: you can only see other people's content if you've posted your own BeReal.
6. See where friends are in the world.
Other features in the app include a Snapchat-like map, where you can see where your contacts are in the world.
So the app is truly a place to remove time and consideration, rather living in the moment. At least, that's what they're aiming for.
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