BeReal May Be On the Out: Users Have Nearly Halved Since Peak
BeReal, the “anti-Instagram” photo-sharing app that dominated Apple’s App Store charts for much of last year, is already on the decline.
According to The Business of Apps, data from app intelligence firm Apptopia indicates consumer interest in BeReal may have already peaked.
The data shows that the monthly downloads of Bereal have dwindled in recent months and the photo-sharing app has seen its daily active user figures drop by 48% from its peak in October 2022.
According to the report, BeReal was estimated to have hit 20 million daily active users in October 2022. However, that has almost halved to 10.4 million daily active users.
Furthermore, the data shows that the app’s monthly downloads fell from 12 million in September 2022 to 3.3 million in January 2023.
BeReal saw such a surge in popularity last year at a time of widespread irritation with Instagram and its redesign in order to compete with TikTok.
However, since then, BeReal has faced competition after its gimmick — which only allows users to post one photo per day on a dual camera and only at a randomized specific time — was copied by other social media apps.
In December, Instagram officially launched “Candid Stories” which randomly prompts users to take spontaneous selfies with a back-facing and front-facing camera at the same time.
Snapchat also released a dual camera setting that bears a striking resemblance to BeReal’s main feature.
According to The Business of Apps, BeReal’s premise, which limits users to one photo per day, may have reduced the amount of leverage the app has on its audience to return daily. Unlike the continuous photos and videos available for users to browseTikTok and Instagram, there is little to re-engage and hook users to BeReal.
There were signs that BeReal’s appeal may have been waning late last year. In October, data revealed that while BeReal had soared to over 53 million downloads, only nine percent of users opened the app daily.
BeReal may not be the only formerly popular photo-sharing app on the decline. Last week, PetaPixel reported that the artificial intelligence (AI) photo editing app trend, which was witnessed with the rise of Lensa AI last year, may already be over.
