BeReal claims to be “Your Friends for Real.” But is that true? BeReal was arguably the hottest app of the summer. But what even is it? “Everyday at a different time, everyone is notified simultaneously to capture and share a Photo in 2 Minutes.” Once the notification goes off, everyone starts scrambling for their phone and is making sure to get in a good position. Sounds like fun right? 

           The app, quite like Snapchat, stores all of your memories but only you have access to it. But unlike Snapchat and Instagram and all those other apps, BeReal’s aim is authenticy. Once the notification goes off you have two mins to take a picture with your back camera and your front camera. The app counts your “retakes” and displays that number on your post. The app also lets you know who is screenshotting your posts and allows comments and “Reacts”. What could possibly go wrong?

            Don’t get me wrong, I love BeReal and taking my BeReal is one of my favorite parts of my day. However, I see users going down a road of “BeingFake”, see what I did there. I feel that as time goes on, people are going to start treating BeReal like Instagram and Snapchat. They feel that it’s a way to share with “friends” what their life looks like at a given moment without the need of being “perfect” like you would on Instagram or Snapchat. The issue with this is many people feel that BeReal is an escape from influencer culture. As time goes on the pressure to get more and more “reacts” on the app grows. It grows to the point where you see users start to add random people in their quick add.

        While the future of the app is unknown I think we can all agree that the app had a great run in its prime. I think the app will still be around in a few months but will most likely start losing users as time goes on and we get “LessReal.”