We don’t know about you, but our phones are jampacked with photos, social media apps, and photo editing apps. Honestly, we think if we take one more photo of our breakfast or post another picture of our dog, our phones might spontaneously combust. But hold on to your knickers, because we have another app for you to download. Now besties, you should know us at this stage. We’re not going to share any auld app with you. Yes, it is kind of a social media app. Yes, it is another photo app. But, BeReal is different, and we’re pretty big fans of it to be fair.

Now, you’re probably wondering, what are the Shona crew up to now. I have no more storage to be randomly downloading a new app I’ll use once and forget about. Give us some credit here. BeReal is worth deleting Angry Birds for! Let us ask you something. Have you ever been sitting around on a random Thursday evening and are wondering what your friends are up to right there at that exact moment? You want to know if Michelle is wrapped up in her dressing gown binging the new episode of Selling Sunset or if Amy is out doing yet another food shop with her Ma getting the “you need to eat more vegetables” lecture when all she wanted was a packet of M&Ms. Well, with BeReal this is exactly what you can find out.

BeReal is known for its once-a-day posting policy where its users are encouraged to post an unfiltered look at what they are doing in real-time. But sure, Susan just showed you the new TikTok filter that makes your skin look so clear, that she kind of looks like an alien. Sorry, not sorry. BeReal has you caught out here. It doesn’t give its users the option to edit or add filters. This is to try to get people to give more of an authentic insight into their daily lives, instead of the usual picture-perfect posed BS we see on every other social media platform. 

How does BeReal work?

Once you’ve downloaded BeReal, you’ll start to get daily notifications from the app. This is your chance to share an unedited view of your day. The fun bit? You are given 2-minutes to get your picture and post it! It would get pretty boring though if you knew at 2 pm each day, that you had to share your day. You could start to plan to wear a cute outfit or get your sister to drive you to that beach down the road to get the perfect snap. Oh no, BeReal has you caught out already. Each day, the time changes. So you could be brushing your teeth with toothpaste all over your face (side note, can anyone actually brush their teeth and not get it all over their face?) or you could be watching the Notebook for the 709th time and crying at the ending that you knew was coming. Once you open the app after getting the notification, the app asks you to take a picture with your phone’s front and back cameras simultaneously to provide a complete snapshot of what you’re doing at that moment. 

This is making a judgment-free space because let’s be honest, everyone will get caught out more than once. Guess what the best part is? Every BeReal user gets the notification at the same time (depending on their time zone), resulting in a brief period when everyone is posting for the day. Don’t worry though, BeReal aren’t monsters. If you decide you don’t like your first post or miss the two-minute window, you have the option of retaking your photo or posting late. Buuuuuuut, there’s a catch. We’ll actually there’s two. If you post late or change your picture, your friends on the app will be told that. And, to catch all of those friends who like your pictures or are just on to scroll and be nosey but never post themselves (which realistically we all do to some degree), BeReal won’t let you see what your friends have posted until you have! Okay, that feature is a little evil, but we kind of like the evil genius minds of the BeReal team!

We’ve got to give the BeReal credit too. Sitting pride of place on their website is this quote, which we quite enjoyed…

With social media giants like Instagram and TikTok under increasing scrutiny for the ways their platforms negatively impact young people’s mental health, we want BeReal to be a solution to the pressures of appearing “perfect” online. BeReal won’t make you famous, if you want to become an influencer you can stay on TikTok and Instagram.

So, go on and head over to the App Store or Google Play Store and download BeReal. Be sure to let us know what you think, and you can thank us later 😘

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