BeReal is one of several “Real” apps exploding in growth with young users who crave real connections with people they know in real life.
According to data.ai, BeReal ranks 4th by downloads in the US, the UK, and France for Q1 2022 to date, behind only Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest.
BeReal flies in the face of what social media has become. Instead of curated looks that focus on the beautiful parts of life, BeReal users showcase what they’re doing at the moment and share those real photos with their friends. Their real friends.
It’s real. And real is different for a generation of social media users who have been raised on influencers and filters.
As the app says when you go to its page:
Be Real.
Your Friends
for Real.
Every day at a different time, BeReal users are notified simultaneously to capture and share a Photo in 2 Minutes.
A new and unique way to discover who your friends really are in their daily life.

The app has seen monthly users increase by more than 315% according to Apptopia, which tracks and analyzes app performance.
“Push notifications are sent around the world simultaneously at different times each day,” the company said in a statement. “It’s a secret on how the time is chosen every day, it’s not random.”
The app allows no edits and no filters. They want users to show a “slice of their lives.”
Today’s social media users have seen their lives online inundated with ultra-curated social media. The pandemic led to more time spent online than ever. Social media became a way to escape. Reality was ugly. Social media was funny, pretty, and exciting.
And fake.
Enter BeReal where users are asked to share two moments of real life on a surprise schedule. New apps are fun often because they’re new. However, the huge growth in the use of BeReal by college-aged users points to something more than the new factor.

For the past several years, experts have warned that social media was dangerous to our mental health. The dopamine hits of likes and shares are based on photos and videos filled with second and third takes, lens changes, lighting improvements, and filters. Constant comparisons are the norm. And even though we know the world we present on our social pages isn’t exactly an honest portrayal of life, we can’t help but experience FOMO when we see our friends and followers and those we follow having the times of their lives, buying their new it thing, trying the new perfect product, playing in their Pinterest-worthy decorated spaces we wish we could have.
None of what we see is actually real on our apps. We delete our media that isn’t what we want to portray and try again from a different angle and shoot second and third and forth takes that make us look just a little better.
We spend hours flipping through videos on our For You walls and Instagram stories picked by algorithms that know us better than we know ourselves.
BeReal is the opposite of that. It’s simple, fast, and real. It’s community and fun, but it’s a moment instead of turning into the time-sink of our usual social media that, while fun, is also meant to ultimately sell stuff, including all our data.
It will be interesting to watch BeReal and see if it continues down its promised path and whether the growth continues. People are looking for something. Maybe reality is that answer.

Missy Caulk
October 3, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I just started using GoogleDoc’s to follow the transactions. My assistant adds what she has done and both myself and the client can assess it. Love Google Calendar, both for a TEAM calender and personal one.
Right now you would have to pry my hands off outlook, but I’m open.
Nick Bostic
October 3, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I totally understand, my relationship with Outlook is definitely love/hate 🙂 I have been forced away from it due to my corporate IT policy and I’ve found some interesting workarounds, but it does require the correct hardware/software decisions across the board. I think it will get easier to live without Outlook as time goes on though. But the details are for the next article….
Missy Caulk
October 3, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I look forward to it.
Lani Anglin-Rosales
October 3, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Nick, the resistance I’ve had in the past (but have been coming out of) is the transition to cloud computing… I’d love to hear more about transitioning (what do I do with my old data- do I store it or can it come with me in each instance? is it safe? how can i be sure? will Google take over all of the cloud computing world? how is each superior to what i’m already using?). I’ve spent a great deal of time researching and transitioning into online services, but with anything new, I have my reservations.
I’m very excited to hear your take on all things cloudy! 🙂
Mark Eckenrode
October 3, 2008 at 3:15 pm
this has been pretty attractive for me but the speed is what kills me. after a long day working… add up the time spent waiting for pageloads, transfers, etc and it can get ugly.
Todd
October 3, 2008 at 3:41 pm
“…I have recently run into a few people who don’t trust cloud computing…”
Using their logic they should have zero trust in, and never use mobile phones, since they are cloud computing.
I have seen the exact same thing – I recommend to someone that they try Google Docs out for a week and see if it is a “80% solution” for them to abandon Microsoft Office. They stand either holding, or actually talking on their mobile phone, and say to me “Sounds risky, how do I know I won’t lose any data? Pass.”
…Ummmm Dude, then use only landline phone from now on. Mkay?
Rob La Gesse
October 3, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I work at building “the cloud” and I really see a different adoption path – one where you can work either on, or off of the cloud. One where your data is available wherever you need it to be – where the apps can be local, or online. Th data can be manipulated locally or online. Where everything is kept in sync through Really Smart Software – even if many people are manipulating that data at the same time. We are already seeing this in many forms – Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Mosso – we are all providing some level of solution to this problem. The problem? It shouldn’t matter what computer/device I am on, or where my data “lives” – I just need access to it – and to my apps.
As the Internet gets faster and faster, and becomes available everywhere, it won’t matter what the device is anymore – a “new instance of your computing environment” can be rapidly downloaded and utilized no matter the device. The true potential of the cloud isn’t just “my data from anywhere”, but “my environment everywhere”.
And we are moving very rapidly in that direction!
Rob
Bob
October 3, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Anyone ever been to DEFCON?
I use GoogleDocs and other cloud apps, but storing the personal info of those you don’t want to have to answer to is not a good idea.
John Kalinowski
October 4, 2008 at 5:33 am
Bob- Can you elaborate on what you meant by “storing the personal info of those you don’t want to have to answer to is not a good idea”? Thanks!
Bob
October 4, 2008 at 2:30 pm
John,
I do a ton of short sales. Those packages have a ton of personally identifiable info. Storing them in the cloud is a liability if my clients dont consent.
Thomas Johnson
October 8, 2008 at 9:07 am
@ Bob: You got it! We are fiduciaries. Until there are bank level security systems for all our transactions without the cost of bank level security, I am more comfortable securing a file cabinet and locking my office. Ask Gov. Sarah Palin how she likes cloud computing after her Yahoo account got hacked and broadcast to the world by a kid.
For a RE practitioner, what is the cost of secure enterprise cloud computing? I know that this will not be free. This is the kind of scalable solution that Realogy will be able to bring to the table. Independents will have to dig deeper into their pockets.
The speed is excruciatingly slow when pictures are involved. Video will further bog down all the speed gains that we have seen in the past few years. I am willing to toss marketing stuff up in the cloud at negligible cost. I am not so sure that my vault needs to be hanging out there.
Nick Bostic
October 8, 2008 at 10:21 am
Bob and Thomas, do you ever email documents? Or send them via courier? Or send them to a mortgage broker, title company or lawyer? The big problem is you can secure your data as much as possible, but when you have to work with other people, all of your precautions are typically thrown to the wind. We frequently receive documents that were supposed to go to a competitor because their courier service apparently can’t read. They protected that data as much as possible, but due to incompetence, that security was worthless.
If you store data in your computer, it can be hacked. If you store your data in a file cabinet, your office can be broken into. If you talk about information over the phone, it can be tapped. Heck, if you store it only in your head, there are drugs to make you talk! I know, it’s extreme, but the odds of someone hacking your Google Docs account is probably about as likely as someone breaking into your office.
Nick Bostic
October 8, 2008 at 10:32 am
Sorry, just remembered one other thing. If the health care industry is willing to trust Google to store and share our medical records (which I know from experience have even more strict regulations and fines), I think we can safely use these tools for this business.