Be Real: The Anti Instagram Created By French People

While the social networking sector seems already busy with TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, a free application created by two Frenchmen manages to distinguish itself. This app, called Be Real, offers its users to share authentic pieces of life and is a hit with young people. Let's decipher a phenomenon.

Show yourself as you are

The Be Real app (which could be translated as be real, be authentic) takes the opposite tack from other image-sharing social networks. Far from the slick aesthetics and idealized moments that are legion on Instagram, this free app invites users to share real life moments, without elaborate staging or fakery.

This novelty is a French creation, as this app was imagined by Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau in 2020. One of its creators, Alexis, had the idea after being disgusted with Instagram and its influencers who are very different in front of the lens and off camera.

The motto of the app is clear: 'YOUR REAL LIFE: no filters, no likes, no followers, no ads, just your friends for real'. To achieve this degree of authenticity, the application has a somewhat peculiar operation that plays on the surprise effect.

Play the game of the surprise photo

If you decide to install the Be Real app on your smartphone, expect to be surprised! Unlike on Instagram or Snapchat, you don't get to decide when you take photos to share with the community.

One of the most fun and unique aspects of this app is that it sends you an alert at a random time of day. When you receive this notification, you only have 2 minutes to take a photo and share an authentic moment with your friends.

Plus, when you take that shot, your phone captures not only where you are but also a photo in selfie mode. You're caught on the spot and can't cheat or premeditate the image... Rest assured: this photo is then posted to an account where only your friends can see it.

To be able to see your friends' photos, you have to play along and take a photo yourself at an unexpected moment. If you miss the daily notification, you can post a Late BeReal at any time. But don't use this as an opportunity to cheat: your friends will know how many times you went back and took the photo!

Also, still to take the opposite of traditional social networks, there are no likes on BeReal. Other users can simply react with smileys or photos of themselves. It should also be noted that with each new photo, every 24 hours, the previous one is automatically overwritten.

Join the movement

If you find that photos posted on social networks like Instagram and Snapchat lack sincerity and naturalness, you'll probably prefer to use Be Real to share little bits of your life with your friends.

This new app also has the advantage of taking less time from users than other existing social networks. No more need to put yourself on stage, to look for the best decor or the best pose to adopt to give the illusion of a perfect life...

With this app, you are photographed without a filter, in the truth of the moment, at a moment you didn't even choose. It only takes you about 5 minutes a day, and in return you get to see funny or surprising things in your friends.

Getting the alert might be a little stressful if you've gotten used to controlling your image, but it's a fun challenge that more and more users have taken up! The app, which appeals mostly to young people and students in their 20s and 30s, is growing in popularity with more than 10,000 downloads per day, simply through word of mouth.

It already claims more than 400,000 users and hopes to reach the symbolic million user mark by the end of 2022. The application also aims to develop internationally in the next 6 months, provided that the small bugs that sometimes slow down its use are corrected.

This social network seems to have a bright future, but whatever the future holds, Alexis Barreyat promises that Be Real will remain a free application.