Trending mobile app BeReal gets users to post a photo in a 2-minute window and has soared in popularity in 2022, despite glitches
- The French app has been around since 2020 but only recently started trending, taking top spot in the US on Apple’s App Store for three days earlier in July
- But numerous complaints have been made that it crashes when uploading photos, a critical moment as failure to upload in time leads to a ‘late’ label
BeReal, a social media app dubbed the anti-Instagram, has soared in popularity in recent weeks despite numerous complaints that it crashes at a critical moment.
The app, which requires all of the people on the platform to take a photo within a two-minute window each day, often glitches when everyone tries to upload their spontaneous pictures at once. Failure to upload your image within the designated time frame leads to a “late” label of public shame.
Far from deterring users, however, the app took the top spot in the US on Apple’s App Store for three days during the week of July 11, in which it had 1.7 million installs, the biggest weekly gain ever, according to digital analytics platform Sensor Tower.
It’s common, especially among social media companies, that when demand suddenly surges the infrastructure comes under strain, according to Arun Lakshmanan, an associate professor of marketing at the University at Buffalo School of Management, in the US state of New York. “The faster an application is able to ramp up, the more likely it is to become popular and stable,” he said.
BeReal’s boom echoes the early success of Instagram and Twitter, when platform glitches were frequent because of an overload of users. Those apps adapted and survived, but at a time when so many social media apps are competing for people’s attention, BeReal still has to prove it can be more than a passing fad.