‘Anti-Instagram’ Tops App Store Charts Even Though It’s Prone To Glitches
Surprise, surprise—the current ‘it’ app isn’t TikTok. The addicting, video-sharing platform, in fact, has been outpaced by another social network on the Apple App Store. BeReal, billed by many as the antithesis of Instagram, has led the US App Store charts since July 18, and as of July 27, it has kept its streak.
Founded in 2020 by Alexis Barreyat, BeReal goes against the highly-manicured influencer culture by challenging users to take a photo within a two-minute window during a randomized time each day. Only one photo can be captured per day, and if the user misses the deadline, they’ll be marked as “late”—BeReal’s version of the cone of shame.
The app sends users and their friends a notification during an unexpected time each day, pushing them to take a picture in the middle of what they are doing and leaving them no room to edit it. It also utilizes both front-facing and rear smartphone cameras, documenting both the person’s face and their surroundings.
In BeReal’s unforeseen rise to popularity, however, the social media platform has been riddled with bugs that crash the app when users attempt to snap their daily photos. Bloomberg reports that this has been a pattern for social networks that have suddenly shot to fame; Instagram and Twitter had encountered similar problems themselves after onboarding too many users at launch.
Still, the app’s emphasis on unfiltered authenticity and its daily prompts to appreciate things in the moment have been irresistible to users. According to PetaPixel, BeReal has been installed more than 20 million times, of which 1.7 million came from the week of July 11 alone—the app’s biggest week yet, Fast Company reports.
BeReal’s key audience is based in the US, which takes up 35% of its membership base, with the UK (17%) and France (10%) trailing behind.
If numbers aren’t really your thing, you’ll probably be swayed by the swarm of BeReal-inspired memes that have taken social media by storm.
âš ï¸Time to BeReal.âš ï¸ pic.twitter.com/Ittx779NNy
— Teletubbies (@TeletubbiesHQ) July 21, 2022
