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Library/App & software/BeReal
Grade B21 sourcesHIS-00382

BeReal

App & software · 2020 · Notable

50Editable slideCertificate

BeReal’s daily photo app reached an estimated 14 million installs in its peak month.

Clip · Saturday Night Live on YouTube
Current official App Store screenshot showing BeReal’s paired front-and-back camera photo.
BeReal / Apple App Store
BeReal: Photos & Friends Daily on the App Store
BeReal; Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau (co-founders); Voodoo (from June 2024)
New social media app BeReal is trending at colleges as ‘casual instagram’
Bloomberg News (syndicated by News India Times)
The BeReal app in Brooklyn, May 4, 2022. (Calla Kessler/The New York Times)
TIME
Getting real about BeReal
Sensor Tower
App Store Awards celebrate the best apps and games of 2022
Apple
BeReal No Longer Looks To Be the Next Big Thing. BeFake Instead? | Similarweb
Similarweb
BeReal - SNL
Saturday Night Live on YouTube
BeReal photo-sharing app climbing the charts
TechCrunch
BeReal | Know Your Meme
Know Your Meme
The rise and fall of BeReal: Is the anti-Instagram app still relevant?
CORQ
TikTok's BeReal clone is now available as standalone app outside the US | TechCrunch
TechCrunch
Sources: BeReal raised $60M in its Series B earlier this year, now has 20M DAUs | TechCrunch
TechCrunch
BeReal got its best-case scenario exit
TechCrunch

Spread Score

How it works
Reach58Contagion10Breadth80Velocity8Longevity9050

Numbers

October 2022 worldwide daily users, unnamed source via TechCrunch
20M
As of Oct 20, 2022 · Self-reported · TechCrunch
Peak date
Week of Sep 5, 2022
Jan 8 ’20 to Week of Sep 5, 2022
Platforms
6
Started on App stores
Origin
Mixed
Technology

Mechanics

  • Daily ritualPrimary
  • Shareable output
  • Platform jump
  • Press loop
  • Dupe economy

How it spread

Trace the origin

BeReal launched before its campus breakout. Paid ambassadors recruited students; users turned its daily photo prompt into Twitter memes and TikTok videos. It topped app charts, prompted competitor copies, then lost users in vendor estimates. Voodoo acquired it in 2024.

Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.

Wikipedia views · Google searchesNov ’19Jun ’20May ’21Feb ’22MayAugOctNovMay ’23NovJun ’24PeakApp storesPressXTikTokOpen webTV
App storesPressXTikTokOpen webTV

13 more events on this chart

Join free to see them

Timeline (16)

  1. January 2020

    BeReal / Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau seed · Jan 8 ’20

    Apple dated BeReal’s public iOS release to January 8, 2020.[1][2][3]

    BeReal: Photos & Friends Daily on the App Store
    Open the first post ↗

  2. January 2022

    BeReal owner response · Jan 2022

    BeReal ran a paid campus ambassador programme scheduled from January through June.[4]

    BeReal photo-sharing app climbing the charts

  3. March 2022

    Bloomberg News press · Mar 29 ’22

    Bloomberg reported campus adoption and paid student ambassadors at sponsored events and parties.[5]

    New social media app BeReal is trending at colleges as ‘casual instagram’
Changelogupdated Oct 16 ’26
  1. 2026-10-16Added 1 number
  2. 2026-10-13Added: 16 events, 20 sources · Score 39
Origin
Mixed
Sector
Technology
Region
FR
October 2022 worldwide daily users, unnamed source via TechCrunch
20M
As of Oct 20, 2022 · Self-reported · TechCrunch
Evidence
Grade B

Spread the same way

Wordle

Open web · 2021

63
Wordle #196 solved in four guesses: the green, yellow and grey gridOpen

2M players

EPIK AI Yearbook

App stores · 2023

53
How I wish this was my college yearbook creative photos 😅 #photodumps #yearbookAIphotos #AI #epikapp #yearbooktrend #fyp #viral

Peaked at #1

Lensa Magic Avatars

App stores · 2022

44
We've launched something really cool! 🚀 Now you can generate mind-blowing personal avatars with Stable diffusion + Dream booth in a few taps in our app Lensa. It also costs just $2.99 per pack!😃…

$29.3M revenue

Polly

Open web · 2017

38
Second Polly app screenshot supplied in its Product Hunt gallery

20M users

New cases, every week

How the next thing spread, the week it does.

See every timeline

Free account, every case's full spread.

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Wikipedia views · Google searchesNov ’19Jun ’20May ’21Feb ’22MayAugOctNovMay ’23NovJun ’24PeakApp storesPressXTikTokOpen webTV
App storesPressXTikTokOpen webTV

13 more events on this chart

Join free to see them

  1. January 2020

    BeReal / Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau seed · Jan 8 ’20

    Apple dated BeReal’s public iOS release to January 8, 2020.[1][2][3]

    BeReal: Photos & Friends Daily on the App Store
    Open the first post ↗

  2. January 2022

    BeReal owner response · Jan 2022

    BeReal ran a paid campus ambassador programme scheduled from January through June.[4]

    BeReal photo-sharing app climbing the charts

  3. March 2022

    Bloomberg News press · Mar 29 ’22

    Bloomberg reported campus adoption and paid student ambassadors at sponsored events and parties.[5]

    New social media app BeReal is trending at colleges as ‘casual instagram’

  1. platform jump · Apr 7 ’22

  2. backlash · Apr 22 ’22

Join free to see the other 13 events and the full chart. Free, on every case.

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Why it worked

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