In Bid to Stay Relevant, BeReal Rolls Out New Photo Feed of Famous People

BeReal App

BeReal has launched a new feed for photos exclusively of famous people in a bid to stay relevant.

BeReal is rolling out a new feature called “RealPeople,” which appears to contradict the entire premise of the “anti-Instagram” photo-sharing app.

Now instead of sharing daily photos with a personal circle of friends and family, BeReal’s “RealPeople” feature will allow users to get “unfiltered glimpses” into the “daily lives” of the “world’s most interesting people.”

On Monday, BeReal announced in a blog post that users will be able to see images posted by athletes, artists, activists. and other famous users on the app.

As with other BeReal users, famous figures featured in the RealPeople timeline will be prompted to take a photo with the dual camera feature when the app sends them a notification at some point during the day.

BeReal says this will make the Real People photo timeline more candid and unfiltered than other social media apps.

“RealPeople isn’t about influencing, amassing likes or comments, or promoting brands. You won’t see photoshopped pictures, product recommendations, or ads disguised as posts,” BeReal writes in the blog post.

“It’s trying to show we’re all more alike than we think.”

BeReal is currently testing the RealPeople feature in the U.K. Users can access the “curated timeline” by selecting the “Discovery” tab and then hitting “RealPeople.” The feature will be available globally “very soon.”

Users will be able to react to a RealPeople post with an emoji. But there will be other ways to interact with RealPeople posts in the future.

BeReal dominated Apple’s App Store charts for much of last year. However, the hype around BeReal faded and the photo-sharing app has reportedly been on the decline in 2023.

According to data from app intelligence firm Apptopia, 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.

BeReal particularly 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 outright copied by other social media apps.

However, in the last month, BeReal has started rolling out new features in a bid to stay relevant — including testing out a feature that lets people share additional photos per day on the app.

Discussion