Sharjah24 – AFP: It's not all sunsets and selfie smiles -- people are flocking to a new social network app that calls on users to share true glimpses of their lives rather than cherry-picked moments.
Once a day, BeReal simultaneously prompts users to take photos of what they are doing, giving them two minutes. The app uses front and rear facing cameras on phones, putting shared "selfies" into context.
The app shuns software filters that add glossy special effects or touch-up effects.
The approach is a sharp contrast to the carefully cultivated images common on Instagram and Facebook that often focus on parties, holidays, fancy food and perfect weather.
"The ideal of BeReal is you are just in a moment -- where are you and what are you doing right now," said Jennifer Stromer-Galley, a professor at Syracuse University school of information studies in the United States.
"Our lived lives, not our best lives -- maybe you are walking the dog or in your pajamas eating cereal."
Launched two years ago by French entrepreneurs, BeReal has seen its popularity surge in recent months.
It was the most downloaded app in the United States at start of September, and ranked among the top three in Britain and France, according to figures provided by market tracker Data.ai.
BeReal has been downloaded nearly 35 million times worldwide and is proving popular with Gen Z, people born between the late 1990s and about 2010, Data.ai figures showed.
"It does seem to have really taken off as the next potential social media application," Stromer-Galley said of BeReal, though cautioning that the same was once said for ephemeral photo sharing app Snapchat.
BeReal creator Alexis Barreyat was at a mountain bike event when it struck him how social media users focused more on perfecting content than what was happening around them, according to venture capitalist Jean de La Rochebrochard, who invested in the startup.
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