AN EDGY new social media app has started to collide with TikTok in a battle for Gen Z’s attention.
BeReal is loaded with features meant to emphasize authenticity and prevent staging or influencing.
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The social media landscape is unsteady.
Twitter has just launched its lawsuit against Elon Musk for disparaging the company during a failed hostile takeover attempt.
TikTok is facing a potential ban in the US due to its connection with the Chinese government and a lawsuit from parents whose children died attempting challenges they saw on the platform.
Gen Z thinks Facebook is “for Boomers” and some see Instagram as artificial.
The conditions are perfect for a new social media platform loaded with features meant to keep users honest and unfiltered but connected.
Enter BeReal.
The app prompts users to post at a different time of day each day, giving the app a sense of randomness that no one could prepare for.
There is just a two minute window to post after the BeReal notification goes out to the whole network.
Users can post late, but their followers will know – accountability is in the app’s nature.
But content from BeReal – captures from the front and back camera stitched together – is finding its way onto TikTok and Instagram.
Glossy reported that influencers have posted compilations of their BeReal captures to their TikTok or Instagram accounts.
Reposting to other platforms is likely not good for either business.
Sharing BeReal photos on Instagram or TikTok gives the new, competing app exposure.
Meanwhile, BeReal’s description on the App Store BeReal writes: “BeReal won’t make you famous, if you want to become an influencer you can stay on TikTok and Instagram.”
BeReal was founded by a former GoPro employee determined to bring realism back to social media.
The app has more than 7million downloads and backing from a longtime board member at Facebook.