What Is BeReal? How the Photo-Sharing App Works

BeReal has become a very popular social media app lately, and if you are wondering what all the fuss is about, you have come to the right place. What is BeReal? How does it work? In the sections below, we will go over everything you need to know about the new photo-sharing app where everyone talks to friends and shares their own photos at random times of the day.

What Is BeReal? (2023)

BeReal is a social media and photo-sharing app that focuses less on curating one's image (as you would find on Instagram or Facebook) and more on taking more authentic photos of one's life as it is in that moment. It then lets you share those photos with your friends. If Instagram is about building and editing a glossy, influencer-like collection of photos and videos to attract followers and likes, BeReal is trying to be the opposite. It is an app entirely about improving and maintaining connections with friends in less showy, more genuine ways. It lets you create spontaneous posts that allow friends to share more "real" moments.

BeReal is designed to make more authentic posts easier and to encourage them. Instead of simple photo sharing, BeReal has an interesting timed photo-prompt format. Let's take a closer look at how BeReal works.

How Does BeReal Work? (2023)

BeReal has a unique format, because its users are not expected to produce a constant stream of content for others to scroll through. It helps to think of it less as a platform for creators and brands and more as a social network space where friends can share one unique photo post a day among themselves. It is something like a daily visual check-in with your friends.

Here is how BeReal works: All users are sent a daily push notification asking them to take a photo (usually of what they are doing at that moment). BeReal users initially get a maximum of two minutes to take and post the photo. However, you can also post after the time is up; it will just be marked as "late" and your friends will be notified that you posted late. It is also worth noting that you must first post your daily photo to view your friends' posts (or other users' public posts).

A BeReal post is quite plain compared with most social media posts on other platforms. It is an image post containing two photos taken at the same time: a photo of what you are doing and an automatic selfie taken while taking the previous photo. The result is a large, vertically oriented photo of what you are doing, with a smaller rectangular selfie placed over it in the top left corner. (If you have used TikTok Now, you are probably already familiar with this dual-camera style of photo capture.) After posting, you can add a caption to the post, but that's it. No other bells and whistles. You can't add filters, stickers or anything else. You can't edit these photos either. And that's the point. You and your photos are supposed to be "real."

Once your BeReal post is published, your friends can comment on or react to the post with the app's RealMojis feature. RealMojis lets you attach a photo of yourself in which you recreate the emoji you want to use to react to a photo. So if you choose the thumbs-up emoji, you will be asked to take a selfie of yourself making a thumbs-up sign. That selfie will be attached to your reaction to the photo. Since there are only five emoji reactions to choose from in BeReal, you won't have to take a selfie every time you want to react to something. You only need to take one selfie for each of these reactions, and BeReal will save them for future reactions. If you don't like the other preset options, there is also a lightning bolt option that lets you create a custom emoji (with another selfie).

BeReal lets you retake your photo, but your friends will be able to see how many times you retook it before you finally posted. You will also be able to view your previous BeReal posts on your profile. They will be displayed like a calendar, and you will select the day you want to view to see the post. BeReal also lets you share your posts on other platforms such as Instagram.

And finally, BeReal offers a limited Discovery tab that includes public BeReal posts from people who are not your friends. You can't comment on these posts, but you can react to them. You can also set your own posts to be public.

BeReal is free to download and use. As of November 2022, it is available on Android and iOS devices.