Time to BeReal.

In my first class with Gary Kayye last fall he mentioned an app to us that he said was going to be the next big thing in social media and he asked us all to download it to be ahead of the curve. This app was BeReal, and he was right.

Although I had the app for months before actually using it, I have seen it grow in popularity so much over the past few months and it has been really cool to watch Gary’s prediction become reality. BeReal is a social media app that sends everyone a notification at the same time and you have a two minute window to post a picture of whatever you happen to be doing at that exact moment. You can take a picture outside of the two minutes that the notification is sent, but your post is marked as late so that people are discouraged from waiting to post until they are doing something more exciting. It is meant to be much more candid and real than other social media platforms that have become much more curated, such as Instagram and Facebook.

Another interesting feature of BeReal is that it takes a picture with both the front and back camera when you are posting. I’ve definitely had many friends, myself included at first, who struggle to figure out how to get a good picture with both the front and back camera at the same time, but I think it’s part of the fun.

For me the timing of getting this app has been great with graduation. Even though my friends are moving all over the country and away from campus, thanks to BeReal I get to see their face every day and I get a little look into what they are up to. I really enjoy reacting to my friends and seeing others react on posts because people seem much less concerned with making sure they look perfect 100% of the time.

While the app sometimes gets a little glitchy and definitely has some things to work out due to its rising popularity, I love the concept of this platform and have enjoyed watching it grow over the past few months. If you haven’t downloaded it already, I highly recommend it. You never know when it’s going to be time to BeReal.