BeFake AI App Copies BeReal’s Basic Premise, But With a Twist
A new social media app called BeFake AI wants to take a legitimate approach to self-expression by using a phone’s cameras and photos to produce AI-assisted creative images.
Alias Technologies is calling its app “an expressive outlet that empowers new ways of connecting with friends through AI-generated visuals” — the idea being that authenticity is just as obvious through fantasy than reality. It’s a play on another app that was popular with Gen Z users called BeReal — the app has recently plummeted in popularity — which gives users and their friends a two-minute window each day to post to capture images from their phones, no matter where they are or what they’re doing.
BeFake AI works in a similar fashion, except it focuses on fantastical or themed backdrops and visual elements to push the “fake” in its namesake. The idea is that rather than have people try to be perfect — as implied by BeReal — they can use AI-generated imagery to express themselves and hide behind that instead. It can work solo or with friends, though does work with the same once-daily notification to post.
To be clear, this is a wholly different app from another bearing the same name, as well as other apps or sites developed to satirize or parody BeReal. Users will know they have the right one with the “AI” suffix at the end.
As for what you can do with it, Alias says users can create an image of themselves immersed in regalia from a favorite sports team to troll friends or go with a certain theme from a movie, like the recent Barbie film, for instance. Users type in text prompts to generate the images that can adapt to their face and background, which they can also save and post to other platforms, so there is no exclusivity here.
As CEO Kristen Garcia Dumont, puts it, the app was built to break down “the barriers of human connection,” and believes AI can “democratize social media and reduce the stress, pressure and vulnerability” many feel when posting or viewing content.
“While we believe the movement to show raw, real-life candids online was well-intentioned, our thesis is quite different,” Dumont says. “People want aspirational social media and to show their best selves online, and BeFake lets users easily make any moment AI-augmented, and share their creativity with friends.”
Image credits: BeFake AI
