BeReal is the only good social media app. Here's why 

Never have I been so convinced it's Sunday for a whole 30 seconds

BeReal is a social media app that actually makes me happy, purely for the fact that I only follow my friends. I get to see what people I haven't seen in person for months are up to every day. It actually makes me feel connected.

I used to like BeReal. But so many time I’ve been hanging out with my friends etc , having a good meaningful conversation, and then “OMG ITS TIME TO BE REAL!!” And the conversation ends and everyone is on their phones. I love the idea of BeReal but it’s really been bugging me when a social media trying to be authentic is interrupting real authentic moments

It's the everyday real moments that make up most of our lives. The moments that are truly mundane are often the most meaningful because they are personal and true to ourselves.

I don't use BeReal (although I barely if at all post on social media), but I enjoy the concept. It's a chance to show each other that our lives aren't as different as we think.

"Good" social media app is an oxymoron

BeReal is just gonna make people figure out new ways to improve their appearance and romanticize life in the minute it takes to take the picture.

BeReal made me feel worse than any other social media app has. It never bothers me seeing other people's sensationalised posts on traditional social media, I don't compare myself to them because I know it doesn't represent their real lives. It upset me more when I'd get a BeReal notification and I was lying in the dark on my phone and had nothing interesting to share. I uninstalled it after a few weeks.

I still have a hard time understanding why I should care about people's mundane lives😅 I like instagram because its creative, its aestethic and kind of like a photo album where you choose your best shots. This is the same reason I never got into Snapchat. I just dont care enough about people's random snaps that they put zero effort into😅

My problem with BeReal is that it actually incentives not using the app properly - in that, if you post late (say, when you're doing something interesting) BeReal send a push notification to your friends telling them you've posted. So you're rewarded for posted late as it guarantees all your friends think about you in that moment, and possibly open and see your photo or react. I really love the concept of BeReal, and it frustrates me to no end when people wait to post theirs - like put that on your Insta stories or Snapchat - so it's frustrating to see the app encourage this.

idk if i really like it personally. i like the concept of an app where everyone is being completely authentic, but it hasn't been great in my experiance. it's gone off a few times when i've been with friends, and it can be quite disruptive. number one, i find that a lot of the time it's not 100% authentic as people tend to spend the whole 2 minutes trying to get the perfect picture and number two, people then scroll through their friends BeReals for ages and judging them for not being out or idk doing homework or something. i also do not like my face being on social media and i know its a risk regardless, but BeReal has made it worse, especially in school when i know theres a time when almost everyone around me will be taking a picture with both cameras AND when im in school uniform? no thank you. anyway, i like the idea but i've found it can very easily be twisted into something quite toxic.

I really liked BeReal when I had less friends on there, seeing around 5 mundane pictures was better. Now it feels like any other social media to me, since now I have to scroll much more and people wait until they do something interesting later in the day

It sounds so bleak! Maybe it's because I'm autistic, so I don't usually feel peer pressure or post things online to look good; but the idea that people are so fake online now that you need an app to remind you to stop being fake for a minute, is so depressing to me. I get the feeling that rather than everyone being interested in everyone else's business, most people now just have a perception that other people are interested in them so feel a pressure to look good and assure people that they're doing well. But actually everyone is so focused on how they are coming across that they're not very interested in their friends' lives at all. Even with this app, the fact that you get a notification puts pressure on a person, either to be as "real" as possible or to quickly find something interesting. And again it encourages this obsession with output and the perceptions of others.

I like showing and seeing the best, not the mediocrity of 95% of our time

Honestly, no. In the beginning its exicing, but in the end you're gonna find yourself posting the same content over and over again (in school, in front of your laptop, in bed). Until the moment when you start waiting for something interesting to happen, and thats the point when its not real anymore.

I recently went to europe, it was so nice to document mundane moments of our trip and be able to show that to my friends. as well as seeing what everyone back home in australia was doing

That's interesting cause I have a completely different opinion on it. To me the whole concept of Be Real is creepy and scary. It reminds me so much of the movie "The circle", and I feel like it's an invasion of privacy. I have no issue admitting to my friends that my life is mostly boring and mundane but the whole Be Real take a picture of your surroundings in 2 minutes and post it online seems creepy and intrusive.

I never knew I’d be excited for a new social media app lol I find detaching myself from social media the older I get, but this concept of an app sounds indeed exciting. Maybe because for once app is not about showing polished version of our lives but just plain as it is. Raw. This concept speaks to me, I’m going to try it 😅

idk as a woman i just can't shake the fear of being stalked

What is people's love affair of wanting to be tracked by these apps?

The best thing is you can wait with putting on your BeReal and "BeFake" a bit, but then you get nice memory roll and also two cameras at the same time is great.

Fuck be real I got my notification while I was literally in a car crash. at that second hanging upside down but you have to be real, so of course I did it…I still can’t believe this actually happened. I also got the notification at my nanas funeral which was horrid

totally agree! the only problem I have is with those friends who clearly wait till theyre doing something interesting to post late EVERY DAY - like thats the opposite of what the apps for!

why is this how i learned banal wasnt pronounced. anal. with a b in front

No idea why people are so obsessed with images instead of actual information, but there is absolutely no way I would share random photos of what I am doing.

Over the last year or so, I recognised that I spend WAAAAAAY too much time on social media / my phone. I noticed it when I realised that I felt this need to check my phone all the time, and two instances prompted this change- I was checking it when I was brushing my teeth and when I was cooking, even if I only had a few seconds to wait! I even developed this second nature instinct to grab my phone and look at it, for no reason entirely. So I started to cut back drastically, by deleting accounts (such as TikTok and Reddit) and deleting apps off my phone. I have IG and Twitter but I only use them on my PC and all I do really is post art then I simply disappear again. The web versions are not as addicting, and they're not that fluid in navigation so I find myself hardly looking for more than a few minutes a day. It was really hard breaking that natural instinct to constantly check your phone, but I started deleting these apps in August and I'm doing just fine now. I'm at a point where I leave my phone somewhere and forget about it for hours, until I'm like 'where is it?' Haha. I also really began to realise that seeing everyone's highlight reel or daily snaps just ... doesn't entice me anymore. Sure, it can help you feel more 'normal' or connected by seeing what everyone's days are like but I think we need to work on trying to find that sense of community IRL and not just online. When BeReal came out, I had no interest in trying it. Mostly because I REALLY hate the idea that at some random point of the day, I would be bothered to take a photo. It sort of feels like they're allowed to bother you at any point in the day, regardless of circumstance. It feels slimy, like I always have to be available for the social media gods lmao. And I could see this landing on times when I'm working, showering, living life offline, etc. So I never downloaded it to begin with. And with the way you describe it, I think that people such as yourself are drawn to it because we live our lives too much online, and we really need to get offline. I don't even have many IRL friends (mainly because I hate the city I live in and I want to move) but simply disconnecting and focusing more on my real life has improved my mental health SO much, I'm honestly surprised. The self comparison and constantly needing to be on top of everything being posted and the anxiety if you don't but depression when you do ... just melted away. I didn't even think I WAS comparing myself, but subconsciously, I was. I didn't even think I'd feel as good as I do now, I didn't think social media really affected me THAT much. Now I set boundaries on when I check my phone, when I look at socials, and when I spend time offline. I still keep apps off my phone for now since I do find myself being too addicted to them, so I'm not sure I'll ever find a happy medium. (I will say that using the browser version is also less addicting! I've been experimenting with posting through that and not through the app.) I'm also trying to implement a 'no screens' day in my week now, mainly because my poor eyeballs need it lol. (As a digital artist, you don't realise how much eye strain you get!) So if you like BeReal, that's cool. :o) Personally, I think society needs to lessen their time online in general and I already love the heck out of the abyss that is living offline. I like to watch RU-vid quite a bit, but it's more a listen while working kinda deal. I've been varying what I watch lately too, so that's a nice treat. I'm trying to develop a better skill at watching actual media like tv shows and such but I find them a bit distracting since I always want to watch with my full attention haha. Perhaps one day! Or not. I'm cool with just enjoying music as I paint.

No-one's actually really using it for real moments though, people still fake their posts

Another reason why I like BeReal is the amount of time you spend on it. I recently stopped using Social Media because it was really frying my brain and consuming so much of my time, but when all of my friends were on BeReal I felt compelled to try it, since it isn't something that you can really use for hours, it's something that just pops up that time of the day, you check people's photos once and that's it, it's nice to know what my friends are doing right then and there without getting addicted to the screen for more than a few minutes.

It honestly just sounds like a more regulated snapchat? (I'm not a snapchat user lmao) but at least in the beginning days of snapchat I think people were invested because you get to tell each other what's going on in that moment, and take a photo of it. So yeah be real sounds more restricted, there being a specific time and probably doesn't allow filters?

I had only heard of Bereal in the last week or two when Philip DeFranco mentioned it. I had no idea what it was. Thank you for enlightening me :)

I think BeReal will be one of those things that we look back on fondly in a few years and think, "Mm, that was a nice little thing we used to do."

I always miss the BeReal time and end up posting the same things when I get home from work. I feel like i cant participate unless im doing something "worthwhile" so thank you for reminding me what the app is for. Its literally called Be Real.

Leaving the occasional comment on YT is pretty much the only way I have anything to do with social media. I do in theory have a Facebook page some friends persuaded me into, but I haven't touched it for over a year. I didn't grow up with it and I don't need it in any way. I have no particular desire to 'be seen'. Books, music, films and actual friends are far more important. And, as you say, monetisation (in fact almost any commercial considerations) will inevitably ruin just about every aspect of our lives... if we let it.

I love BeReal for the same reasons! 90% of the time I'm at my desk, but one time it triggered while I was at a gig for my favourite band and I was super excited about that. It makes everything feel more meaningful.

It personally makes me really sad to know that people need a reminder that living a "boring" life is fine. I don't use BeReal myself, but I do see people very quickly staging an alternative reality when the notification comes. "BeReal time everyone, quickly clean the table!" No thanks. I post when I have something to share and I perfectly well know most people have TV time in their underwear under a blanket wolfing down a pizza they were not supposed to order yet again because depression keeps them from cooking. I am glad it brings other people joy, and I hope it will stay that way for quite some time.

Omg my bereal went off while watching this, it's like the stars collided.

honestly be real consists of me and my cat doing nothing most days.

I worry that soon users would need to post more interesting things (the novelty of mundane would end). This could mean people always being anxious of the notification while trying to be in a cool location when it goes off. At least with the other social media applications, you post at your own time. Also, I think for a social media app to be successful, it needs to become addictive, but this app is trying to not be so will probably die once the trend ends.

I don't want strangers knowing what I'm up to.

Thank you for this. As you have correctly identified, I have been living under a rock (I don't use social media due to fears of being sexually harassed at school carrying over into the online world) and you are the first person who has been able to easily and simply explain my main question: "What the f**k is a bereal?" However, from how I've seen my peers use it, it seems to take away from real life and actual authentic moments. Also, it will go off for someone in class, so a bunch of people will just start yelling"Miss (name) bit we have to do our BeReal!" And such in the middle of class when the teacher is just trying to teach and the rest of us are trying to learn. It disrupts the flow of learning and the teachers have to spend more time arguing with them as to why they can't take photos of their whole class, many of which aren't allowed to be in photos, when they aren't even allowed to use phones in school, in the middle of Maths class.

BeReal has been so beneficial to me and my friends. We downloaded it at the start of the year and it's helped so much with keeping us connected as we started university this september and no longer have our location or education to keep us connected.

I don't use it because I don't want to be at the mercy of a notification plus it always goes off for everyone else when we're trying to do something important

I love BeReal! I’m making it as un-Instagram as possible. I look drunk in most of them 😂

Life is funny how we always want the opposite of what we actually have...at the moment I am going through the early stages of cancer treatment and I absolutely ache for the ordinary! To be able to just sit and watch tv with no fearful thoughts would be blissful..💖

Today in class, we did a bereal as it was our last lesson with that teacher. It is blurry but it's great

I have only 3 of my close friends, my cousin and another friend from high school that I haven't spoken to for ages as my BeReal friends. I kind of love it.

My BeReal is a real rollercoaster. I'm a nude photographer, so you get anything from a photoshoot backstage to my cat or me at traffic lights

Sounds interesting. But i don't think enough people are in a simmilar situation to yours to make it the new big thing. But it could be a decent nich app for a dedicated niche community. Not everything needs to be mega big.

Now BeLate sounds like my kind of app! Lol

I mostly use it for its journal-ness, I like tha fact that I have a photo of every day and I can go back to them

BeReal really has taken over Northern Ireland (at least my area) and I'm absolutely here for it.

BeReals like the one app i try to update every day even if most of the time its just me doing schoolwork 😂 everyone elses i see is going out to events and im like ‘oh, im boring’ and my friends like ‘ur not- u just use the app like intended’ and the one time i do go out to an event it makes it funnnn

BeReal made me feel worse that any other app because I know TikTok and Instagram aren’t real, they are highlights. But I always saw people’s BeReal and they were always out and seeing friends, whereas I rarely was so then I started to get sad I wasn’t being invited, even though I wouldn’t have known so wouldn’t have cared before

...but then I will have to take a picture of myself. Every. Single. Day - no thank you

Great Video!

Being primarily bedridden, I don't think I would feel comfortable with this.

be real does one thing better than any other app, it actively forces you to use it, which is actually worse than other social media

Well pitched. I guess I’ll give it a try

I really like it and I find I’m not on it as much as others. I check it once in the morning to make sure it didn’t come in while my phone was in bedtime, I be real, I check it every time I get a notification, that’s it. My only problem is that since I got it less than a week ago it doesn’t give me the notification yet which is really annoying

Heard about BeReal last week. So I think I'm still blinking as I come out from under the rock. But I have heard of it. This is always an interesting time.

Apparently I have been living under a rock

As a woman, I don't like the idea of showing everyone where exactly I am at the moment (I've been stalked before and it's scary). I like the option to confuse people when posting on Instagram. Some people don't even know in which country I live and I love that. 😂

BeReal? More like Big Brother demanding to know what you're doing every random moment of your life. If an app is free, you are the product.

That's a lovely mug. Le Creuset?

why did i only just realise that bereal doesn't have ads to make money lol

i love BeReal, sad though when i saw “TikTok Now” following close there after

Well I guess I’ve been living under a rock 😂

The concept sounds great but I do worry about advertising where you are are if there is anything people shouldn't be sharing! Lovely insight and ukeleleing though!

Haven't even downloaded it yet but i'm going to so i can give it a try. from videos i've seen the discovery part of it seems like instagram or other social media apps. The 2 minute concept once a day seems like a good thing. No rehearsing. I'll give it a try.

Personally I use social media like instagram or tiktok more to enjoy art and creations for fun or inspiration from people. I feel like one of the big issues with most media now is how it's trying to take away as much privacy as possible and have everyone connected. But personally I don't care what other people are doing at some random time of the day and compare myself to that and feel bad I'm not out at a party or doing something actually productive. The people I actually care about I can know what they're doing anyway without some random app forcing it on me with more social pressure attached.

Thank crunchie it’s friyay!!

Most people I know only use BeReal when there is something interesting to share as we can post late and turn off notifications. Only one or two people I know actually post everyday

The threat to BeReal is not only monetization and other apps. I already saw many TikToks about “winning BeReal”. Trying to stand out, take the coolest picture in the coolest place. Basically Instagram with extra challenge.

Sounds like the great app called "Fargate" I had on my iPod Touch 4. 😊 ...That was about 10 years ago. They stopped the app after a year or two that I found it, but not due to lack of interest but probably because no money could be made from it and the creators/managers needed to eat.

I dunno I feel like if you share (let's say) that you are at the park and some creep knows exactly where that is... they might come and look for you on purpose

I kinda feel the exact opposite about BeReal. No one actually posted when the notification went out and they just waited until they were doing something interesting. It made me feel even more shitty about my "boring" life. At least with regular social media you kinda expect some level of fakeness so you take everything you see with a grain of salt

This is an incredibly intrusive concept. I almost never post anything to social media any more as I don't have time in my life to waste, though I am wasting some time now to comment on this video . I don't want something to interrupt me while I was doing something else in my life that may of far greater value than some social media post.

My first thought was that it furthers your attachment to your phone and makes you more of a slave to the sound of a notification, so I wasn’t a fan. I like your perspective though, and I have changed my mind in the sense that if we are going to have a social media like snapchat, Instagram, etc, then it should be BeReal

TikTok has added it too but it doesn’t sound like they’ve mastered it as well as you’re making it sound. You may be the first person to talk about BeReal to actually get me to download it 😂

TikTok stole the concept too actually

6pm radio time

I assume a way they could monetize it is, after you post your be real you get a ad.

I thought it would be a nice idea until I downloaded it and realised that I actually don't spend enough time on my phone for it to work! In a week, I almost never saw my phone notifications in time. So I deleted it. The idea of it is nice. But I find it a little shocking that you literally need to be checking your phone all the time for it to work. If I'm out or at work, I don't check my phone even if it chimes. I personally prefer to keep it that way but each to their own!

For some reason everyone finds my BeReals hilarious. More or less everyone is loving a picture of me eating a curry.

I'm living my boring life, and I don't need an app to tell me that!

So... It's not meant for people who work in food service, clean rooms, or other jobs where mobile use is restricted for periods of time. And it probably favors normal 9-5 workers sleep schedule.

Hope this works out for you. Sounds interesting

First time hearing of this application. I need make more videos on this thing so I can make money on it.

This is just going to turn into Omegle: dudes touching themselves.

You could watch tv in the different language

Interesting concept. I have a blog, (I'm not trying to promote it) and it's kind of the same idea only with words... and sometimes random pictures.

Amen

they are still missing the point. You don’t need to share every detail of your life with people that aren’t there. Screw all social media. Ask yourself why do I need to share this? Then ask it again. After a few times you will realise that there literally is no point in sharing your life to absolutely everybody.

You need a shed or an allotment (garden) Evan. 😍

I did read the other day that BeReal requires you to turn on exact location and EVERYONE can see that. So uh... it's a really great app for stalkers and terrorists to use! 😬 Just as a warning for women, LGBT+, other minorites.......

Why no internet out video frame on round play

I deleted the app when I realised how pointless it is

this is such a cute millennial take on bereal

I tried BeReal, no one used it, I stopped using it.

I never use bereal