Hands up: who remembers the whirlwind social media craze that was BeReal?
Let me set the scene: 10 November 2022. I’m at a Wallows concert with my best friend, and my ridiculous spending habits came in handy when I splurged on VIP tickets that got us early entry, and — you guessed it — barrier.
Being front and centre as Dylan Minnette performed his heart out was truly a time for my 22-year-old self. I did have a pesky thought at the back of my mind, though, one that haunted me for the entire concert: ‘I really hope my BeReal goes off during the concert.’
Normally, if it had gone off during the day, I would’ve held off on posting until the concert. No late post is going to stop me.
But alas, I waited. I thought, ‘Surely it’ll go off during the show?’
Well, it didn’t. It went off about 10 minutes after we’d left the Hordern Pavillion.
Truly, I was FUMING. And now, over two years later, I look back at that time and can’t help but giggle. What a way to think about an app that has authenticity at its core.
What is BeReal?
ICYMI, BeReal was designed to be a reprieve from the curated social mediascape.
It encourages unfiltered posting with users receiving a notification at a random time each day. Users then have two minutes to capture a front and back camera image simultaneously, with the app noting any retakes or late posts.
If you click onto the BeReal website, you’re met with a bold statement: your daily dose of real life.
Self-touted as a way to “share a genuine glimpse into your real life with the people you care most about”, BeReal exploded into the zeitgeist in August 2022 with a whopping 73.5 million active monthly users.
It seemed like the app was on an insane trajectory to success, but according to Social Shepherd, BeReal reported a total of just 23 million active monthly users by the beginning of 2024. That’s a loss of over half.
It was also around this time that French tech company Voodoo acquired the company for a whopping €500m.
@roeyjinke the app is dead lmao #foryou #tiktok #roeyjinke #bereal ♬ SHAKEYFUNNYAZZ FCK IT LETS DO IT – Superkickk
With this loss, we’re talking monthly — meaning if you post just once a month (when the app is considered a daily posting app), you’re counted.
Given this stat, we can assume the number of active daily users is significantly lower. Big yikes.
So what led to the decline of this self-proclaimed “authentic” take on social media?
Crystal Abdin, Director of the Influencer Research Lab & Professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University, can’t credit it to one sole driver.
“It all comes back to app ecology in general. With the way that apps currently operate, there’s a high inertia of downloading new apps if an older app isn’t constantly upgrading and evolving,” said Crystal.
“Think back to the glory days of Snapchat — what started as a transient way to share photos with friends turned into maps, filters, and even news access.”
BeReal? Well, it remained BeReal. And some might argue that this is the entire premise of the app — keeping it real, without all of the fluff. It’s a great premise, sure, but it’s not so much a model for eternal success. (We can thank our increasingly short attention spans for that, which as we know, is largely credited to the TikTokification of social media).
“The marketing for the app was really provocative when it first launched. It was branded as the ‘anti-Instagram’, which had become too picture perfect,” said Crystal.
“What it missed is that Instagram used to be that. It used to be advertised as the ‘photo app on the go’. Then, it evolved into what we know Instagram to be today. Funnily enough, we can look at how successful Instagram is today, and see that its evolution worked.”
what happened to bereal like none of my friends post there anymore it fell off so much
— cai 🕸🍒 (@ac1d_ra1n7x) November 26, 2024
So, we can see how BeReal fell off, and why app fatigue grew quickly. But is this a comment on how we view authenticity as a whole?
The plight of authenticity
Dr Lisa Hackett, Director of PopCRN, tells me that authenticity doesn’t necessarily mean accuracy. I know that sounds wack, but bear with me.
“Authenticity needs to feel real, but it doesn’t need to be accurate. When we look at history, there’s a difference between history being 100 per cent accurate to the past, and having the stories we tell from that period feel authentic,” said Dr Lisa.
“This newfound concept of authenticity is more reflective of who we are today. It’s co-created, and it’s constantly shifting, so it’s contextual with what’s going on.”
me at 11:57pm waiting for the bereal to go off pic.twitter.com/YKiJFpQt3P
— heather (@theogheater) June 24, 2023
So, what does that tell us about BeReal’s authenticity?
To help answer this, we need to think contextually as to what was going on during the app’s peak. You know. That whole global pandemic thing.
Whilst the pandemic and its lockdowns were arguably at its tail end during BeReal’s peak, it very much was at a time where we were only just beginning to transition back to a semblance of normality.
“If you look at other platforms like Instagram, these online curated lives were very externally-based. When our lives shut down, it’s understandable that people wanted to communicate differently,” said Dr Lisa.
“The app exploded with a lot of young people in particular, so if we’re looking at the way their lives shifted, the way that they worked, studied, and socialised had been completely uprooted. BeReal was a sense of collective normalcy through all of the chaos.”
Crystal seconds the notion of the pandemic being a huge driver in BeReal’s growth.
“With BeReal in particular, it peaked at a time where our movements were still restricted and we couldn’t see our loved ones as easily. It was a chance to take a peek into what felt like their intimate moments, which young people were so reminiscent of at the time.”
With that logic, we can see how BeReal’s success came crashing down just as fast.
“If you’re going back out into the world post-pandemic, there’s fatigue there. Everything is changing, again, and BeReal becomes just another platform to post on,” said Dr Lisa.
“You’ll always have to be ready for whenever those two minutes strike. It sounds novelty and fun in theory, but it quickly bleeds into the rest of your life.”
@lxvxgx Add me @Lxvxgx and I promise to try and be real as much as I can (although im not ashamed to say I have in fact been this type of person once or twice) #bereal #lxvxgx #funny ♬ Unstoppable (I put my armor on, show you how strong I am) – Sia
This is all well and good, but my question remains — can we really be authentic online?
After talking with the experts themselves, there really is no one answer.
There’ll always be some level of curation online, it’s the very nature of how these platforms function — but certain facets of our online lives will always be more real than others.
Was BeReal a great, novelty way to communicate with friends and sync up your days in what was a bleak time for many? Sure.
But novelty can only last for so long, and as we began to break out of a global pandemic and slotted back into our natural ways of communicating and socialising — well, for most, that meant no need for BeReal anymore.
Either way, the sun keeps shining and BeReal keeps ticking along.
And here’s the real kicker: I found that you can even advertise on the platform now.
Don’t worry, the irony is not lost on me either.
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