Meta is in the middle of a crisis. Gen Z users have already abandoned Facebook. Now they are deleting Instagram for new social platforms with more authenticity, like the BeReal app.
What Is The BeReal App?
Former GoPro employees, Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau were frustrated by the lack of authenticity of Instagram. Between all the Instagram filters and photo staging, it was hard to tell was real and what wasn’t.
Together, they founded the BeReal app in December 2019 with the goal of encouraging users to post unedited and real photos once a day.
How The BeReal App Ensures Authenticity
Here’s how the BeReal app works. Once a day, you and your friends all get a push alert at the exact same time. Upon receiving the push notification, the countdown begins. Each user has only two minutes to share what they’re up to. This prevents you from staging, pre-planning, or sharing older photos from your phone.
To help guarantee authenticity, the BeReal app captures both a selfie and front-facing photo at the same time. The company says this feature allows users to show their true personalities.
Once you and your friends upload your daily photos, you can then all see and comment on each other’s posts.
BeReal Is A New Twist On Ideas From The Frontback And Minutiae Apps
The main concepts behind the BeReal app aren’t completely new. BeReal just combined them into a more authentic wrapper.
- An older app called Frontback was one of the first apps that took a photo using both the selfie and front-facing camera at the same time. Unfortunately, the Frontback app shut down in 2015.
- Sending a push alert to users prompting them to post a photo is the main idea behind the Minutiae app, which launched in 2017.
What really sets BeReal apart is how the platform has combined these ideas with a bigger focus on authenticity and made group sharing more private. For example, Minutiae lets you browse stranger’s photos, but BeReal limits your interactions to mostly your group of friends, or others who have enabled global sharing.
Why Gen Z Wants To Delete Instagram
Instagram’s users are frustrated. They have had it with the platform’s overload of advertising and complete lack of authenticity.
In case you haven’t noticed yet, Instagram is just a bloated feed of ads. Every second post on Instagram is a paid ad and every third post is a promoted post. That means over 60% of the content that you see on Instagram is paid to be there.
And the unpaid content that you do see from users on Instagram is so fake and over-polished that it’s hard to know what’s real.
Numerous studies have linked Instagram to a number of serious problems, including body image concerns, self-esteem issues, social anxiety, and depression. When your Instagram feed just consists of beautiful people living perfect amazing lives, it’s hard not to feel a little FOMO (fear of missing out) or even Instagram depression.
Instagram influencers and celebrity power users, like the Kardashians, often use professional photography resources to create their overly-polished Instagram content. Even what appears to be a “raw” photo on Instagram is often just staged to look raw.
And as Meta struggles to fight off competitors like Snapchat and TikTok, Instagram is just becoming bloated with reverse engineered features (aka stolen) and overloaded with sponsored content and shopping.
The end result has been a steady increase in Internet users searching for information on how to delete Instagram. Has Instagram lost its way… permanently?
How To Download The BeReal App
If you are ready to try BeReal, just search for the app in your favorite app store of go to this humorous download URL: bere.al/downloadthedamnthing.
Will BeReal Grow Into A Legitimate Threat To Instagram?
All of these features make BeReal an overall more personal and authentic experience than Instagram, which may be why Generation Z is abandoning Instagram in favor of the BeReal app.
It will be interesting to see if BeReal has enough stickiness and staying power to be a real competitor to Instagram.
Which do you prefer, the authenticity of BeReal or the overly-polished and commerce focused Instagram? Please tell us in the comments.
I’m a dog owner that loves poetry, vampires, mountain biking, and cosplay. I’m open to ideas and still trying to figure my SFO life out one blog post at a time. LF ISO SWF GSOH SI DDF.
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