The day before this article was due, I missed the notification on my phone at about 10am telling me that it was “time to BeReal!” because I was busy having an argument with my boyfriend. When I checked my phone a couple of hours later, all was smoothed over and I was ready to show my friends the “real” me. But by the time I posted – in my pyjamas, hair unstyled and laptop screen showing some boring admin – I was slightly less real than I’d have been had I posted in the two-minute window.
BeReal is the latest social media craze: an “anti-Instagram” app that, rather than letting users create a “highlight reel” of curated photos, or bombarding them with videos of people organising their cupboards or making protein-powder lava cakes, gives them daily updates on their friends. During a specific two-minute period, which changes every day, you are invited to post. You cannot see what other people have posted unless you have too. You cannot post more than once a day. And you have to offer two points of view: BeReal takes a picture using the front and back cameras of your phone at the same time, so a post shows both your face and whatever you happen to be looking at. This bastion of gritty realness, founded by the then 25-year-old Alexis Barreyat in Paris in 2020, has soared in popularity in past months. It has now been downloaded 53 million times and is worth $600m.
Content from our partners
