Is BeReal—A Social Media App Without Filters—Coming for Instagram’s Throne?

“Wait, I need to do my BeReal!” This phrase interrupted enough conversations with friends over the past few weeks that it convinced me to download the app for myself.

BeReal, an emerging social media platform, asks users to take candid pictures at a randomly selected time each day. You get two minutes to pose once you receive the notification; the app captures the view from your phone’s front and back cameras, then shares the results with your friends. It was my first day with it. We sat down over dinner with our roommates, laughing at the funny situations that the app caught us in at 8:19 p.m., stuck in the rain, scrambling egg, and sporting shampoo mohawks.

We’re not alone—since its launch in December 2019, the number of BeReal’s monthly active users has grown 315%, year to date. It’s been one of the 10 most downloaded free social networking apps for iPhones nearly every day this month, according to NBC News. 

But the concept of being real on social media isn’t revolutionary. Instagram is dominated by casual photo dumps, while celebrities make increasingly difficult attempts to be relatable. It’s on-trend to Seem down-to-earth on social media, but you don’t need a blue check mark to know the levels of prep, repositioning, and editing that go into even the most convincing “candid” shots.

BeReal is only the latest in a long string of trending attempts to escape the pressures of social media…via social media. Apps like HujiFilm and David’s Disposables became available as a way to mimic pre-iPhone photography by revoking the ability to immediately examine and edit photos. And as TikTok first gained popularity, it was praised as a more authentic platform for users to be—and look like—themselves. But even TikTok offers beauty filters. These trends point to the same conclusion: We’re exhausted by the obligations dominant social media platforms enforce to retake, retouch, and reinvent ourselves every time we want to post.