Milford students take on latest social media app: BeReal

It’s early afternoon, and as you go about with your everyday life, you feel your phone vibrate in your pocket.

From that moment on, people all over the world have two minutes to post whatever they are doing, and the craziest part: they all do. So what caused such a phenomenon? None other than the newest app to take Milford by storm: BeReal.

BeReal is an app that is aimed to bring authenticity into social media by alerting users at a random time each day. This alert is the same through time zones, so users in other countries have an equal opportunity.

Former employee of GoPro, Alexis Barreyat, didn’t know the success that his app, BeReal, would reach when he launched it in 2020. According to Millenialentrepreneurs.com, Barreyat wanted to make a social media that never trapped users into an “endless scroll” with his intention being, not to make a platform that is used to gain a following, but one to keep in touch with family and friends in a original and fun way.

After the alert, users have two minutes to make a post showing their view from both their front and back cameras. The app will notify followers if a user posts late, so it’s best to be on time. It’s impossible to plan when the BeReal will happen on a given day, so users just have to go on with their day until it happens, which increases the authenticity.

Randomizing the time at which the notification appears each day gives the app’s 2.93 million daily users something to look forward to. According to the New York Times, the app has gained a lot of traction recently because it doesn’t have to do with popularity or followers, but rather ordinary people living their lives.

“It’s a really cool idea,” Senior Ben Mondrush said. “So much on other apps is staged and forced so it’s fun to have a kind of social media that’s just people doing what people do.” Mondrush has been on the app since August and is far more consistent in posting on BeReal as opposed to other social media platforms. Mondrush is far from the only one to think this way. Since its creation in 2020, the app has been installed over 28 million times, according to businessesofapps.com, with 74.5% happening within this past year.

Mondrush isn’t the only student that is on BeReal. Sophomore Alana Banier has given the app high praise. “For me, I really like using it because my brother’s at college and it lets me see what he’s doing. So like, basically, whenever it goes off, that’s my main excitement with it.” BeReal does an amazing job at keeping people in touch, whether they live 10 minutes away, or 10 hours away.

The popularity the app is gaining is not going unnoticed. This is clearly due to the fact that other forms of social media are trying to replicate it. Tiktok has created “Tiktok Now,” which has the same concept as BeReal, just Tiktoks version.

Due to the originality of BeReal, it is clear that their idea is being reused. BeReal limits users to one post a day, and followers can see if you retake your BeReal. On the app, there are options to post to the “My Friends” section or the “Discovery” section, so it is similar to a private or public social media account.

One key aspect of BeReal that hasn’t been done before is that there aren’t any influencers. There aren’t likes, people don’t “blow up” on the app and the posts disappear after the next day’s alert is sent out. Unlike other social media apps, you can’t become famous on BeReal, and even if people see your post on their discovery page, it will all be washed away the next day.

With over 2.9 million daily active users, being ranked fourth in social networking app downloads and topping the list of free iPhone apps as the most popular in the App Store, it’s no surprise that it has become very popular at Milford.

With its message about genuineness on the internet, BeReal is a real gift to the student body, not only as people posting on an app, but as humans growing up in a constantly evolving technology-centered world.