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The SITS Girls

The Secret to Success is Support

BeReal App The Social Media Platform That Is Fun

· Aimee Reatherford

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A new social media app has gone viral for all the right reasons, and it’s called, BeReal app. I know you’re thinking that we REALLY DO NOT NEED another app to suck more time from us, but I promise you that this app will not require that much of your attention. BeReal notifies you to post only one time per day! 

Now that you are interested, let me give you more of a deep dive into this app.

BeReal. The New Social Media Platform.

BeReal App – What You Need To Know

Everyone in your BeReal timezone will get a notification at the same time of the day and will have two minutes to take a picture and share exactly what they are doing at that moment. The app will capture a picture with your forward-facing and rear-facing camera at the same time – so you see yourself and what you see combined into one picture. It’s a super fun view of a random snapshot in time.

Example of a BeReal image - a picture of plants sitting on a table with a smaller picture layered over the top left side of a woman smiling.

BeReal provides friends with a more unfiltered view of their lives, and for those who joined Instagram at the beginning (fewer influencer photos and more snapshots of the food you are currently eating, drinks, or an artistic photo of your favorite plant), it reminds me of just that. No pretty or posed photos, just an image of what you are doing at that exact moment. I love that BeReal takes the pressure off to compose the perfect picture – there are no staged moments here – and that freedom has made it very popular with Gen Z, as well.

Setting Up Your BeReal Profile

When signing up for the BeReal app, the most important thing to do is to make sure that you allow notifications from the app.

Screenshot of BeReal App settings screen.

If you turn off notifications or only allow the notification in summary (Apple version of the app), you will be late in posting your image. You can post late, but the app calls out to your friends that you posted late (and just how late you were), and we don’t want that!  

After you download the app and enable notifications, you can begin setting up your profile. Add a profile picture, bio, location, and time zone. The BeReal timezones are larger than actual timezones – my timezone includes everyone in North and South America.

Screenshot of BeReal App profile screen.

Next, add friends so they can see your daily BeReal moments. Invite people from your contacts, or search their names. You can also see others on the app if they choose to enable their contact list. 

Now that you have finished setting up your profile, you can put your phone down and return to your day. BeReal will randomly send you one notification a day, letting you know you have exactly two minutes to share your photo. When you receive the notification, you open the app and post exactly what you are doing! THAT IS IT! It is so cool to see what your friends are doing at that exact moment (that is, if they post on time!). 

Notification that it's time to BeReal! You have 2 min left to capture a BeReal and see what your friends are up to!
Screenshot of image capture in the app with the two minute countdown.

Like most apps, you also can share your moment on the discovery page for others to see and like. You can choose not to have your image shared publicly and it will just be visible to your friends if you prefer to have more privacy.

You can also view your past BeReal moments, called memories, but those are only visible to you. 

Memories screen in the app.
BeReal Memories are arranged on a calendar grid that only you can see.

A few things might catch you off guard when capturing your BeReal moment (like they did to me), but I got you!

BeReal App Tips

1. The front and back camera will take photos simultaneously, as I mentioned above, so make sure you are ready for that. I was not, and let’s just say that was too real of a moment that I didn’t want to share with others! The image capture view defaults to the front-facing camera. You can click on the switch camera button before you click to capture your image and check out how you are looking in selfie-view.

Screenshot of BeReal Image Capture.

2. You are allowed to retake your photo as many times as needed during the two minutes. You should know, though, that once you’ve become friends with ten users, you can see how many times your friends have retaken their BeReal image (and if they are friends with ten users, they can see how many times YOU tried to capture the perfect BeReal).

Screenshot of BeReal app that shows the number of retakes a user had when capturing their image.

3. Emojis are just as real as your BeReal pictures! This might be my favorite part of the app. After your friends have posted their BeReal moment, you can take a RealMoji to like, thumbs up, laugh, etc., at your friends’ photos. It is always fun to see friends’ faces instead of a standard emoji.

RealMojis are much more fun than emojis. Screenshot of a collection of RealMojis, photographs of the user imitating seven different emoji faces.

4. If anyone has taken a screenshot of a picture that you shared, you will see a number above your friends who reacted to the image. To view which friend took that screenshot; you will need to share your photo on social or via text.

One of your friends took a screenshot! Share your BeReal to discover who among your Friends took a screenshot of it.

And that, my friends, is the BeReal app. It is a fun and different way to stay connected with friends and family. And you can always share your BeReal image to other platforms!

If you are interested in giving this app a try, we suggest you do! 

Let us know in the comments below your thoughts on this new and exciting app! 

About Aimee Reatherford

Aimee Reatherford graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a Bachelors degree in Photography. She has a sweet spot for vintage cars and rocking the latest sneakers. You can find her strolling the aisle of her local craft store for her next DIY project and working on her fitness in her spare time.