Competition for Snapchat, Instagram and Co.
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What can the new social media app BeReal
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New competition for social media giants: BeReal storms the app stores.
Photo: AFP/LIONEL BONAVENTURE
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Düsseldorf BeReal is a new social media app that aims to put creativity to the test. “Authentic moments” should be captured in the form of a photo on the day. But how does the app work and who is behind it?
BeReal wants to challenge the top dogs Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook as a new social network. The platform is very different from its predecessors, because users can only post a photo there once a day. You can find out how this works and what else the app has to offer here.
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Who is behind BeReal?
The app originally comes from Paris in France and was developed there by Alexis Barreyat, who previously worked for the video camera manufacturer GoPro.
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How does BeReal work?
Similar to Instagram or Snapchat, BeReal also primarily relies on photo content. But instead of being able to post as many pictures as you want per day, BeReal only allows you to do so once a day. This should ensure the most authentic photo moments possible. Every day, users receive a notification that is randomly sent to their smartphone. At what time is arbitrary. A time window of two minutes then opens in which users can take a photo and post it.
The picture is then shared with friends who can be imported from the phone book or added to the search.
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Another option is to share the photo in the Discovery feed, which is similar to the ForYou page on TikTok or the Discover feature on Instagram. There you can find photos of people from all over the world and similar to Snapchat, the pictures are only available for a certain period of 24 hours. Another difference to the other platforms: There is no personal profile. Instead, photos can be saved through the “My Memories” feature. In addition, likes and followers are not displayed and, apart from the photo reminder, there are hardly any push notifications compared to other platforms.
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Is BeReal a real alternative?
It remains to be seen whether BeReal can last long and become a real alternative to Snapchat and Instagram. The idea of posting pictures that are as authentic as possible and thus sharing real moments with one another has a very lasting effect, at least at first. But it has been shown in the past that many apps that have tried to connect users in real time can fail. For example, platforms like HouseParty, Periscope or Clubhouse were hyped a lot, but never really caught on.
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How successful is BeReal?
The app has existed since 2019, but has only become more popular this year. A large part of the previous downloads (65 percent) took place in 2022. In addition, the developers rely more on word of mouth than on large-scale advertising campaigns. After the social media platforms Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest, BeReal now ranks fourth in downloads in the US, UK and France in the first quarter of 2022. In March 2022, the app was downloaded a total of 2.1 million times.
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Are there already BeReal influencers?
No, so far there are no influencers on the platform and it is also unclear whether there will be any in the future. Because the pictures at BeReal can only be viewed by those who also post pictures. Passive usage behavior, such as scrolling through the TikTok or Instagram feed, does not work with the app. This would at least limit the effect that influencers normally have on social media.
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Can you chat on BeReal?
BeReal does not have a chat function, but it is still possible to react to the contributions of other users. And with the so-called RealMoji, a photo reaction to the image of a user that is transmitted to him.
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