Just under a year ago, new social app BeReal seemed to be on the rise, with 20 million users reportedly launching the app daily to take their candid photos. However, in the months that followed, BeReal’s popularity declined, according to New report From a similar site, though, it’s rolling out new features like messaging, the ability to post more photos and a “Friends of Friends” discovery feed. However, BeReal disputes the new published estimates, saying it is still growing at a “healthy rate.”
according to Data BeReal, compiled by research firm Sameweb, has lost steam in the US, where the number of monthly active users of the app on iOS and Android has fallen from a peak of 3.7 million in November 2022 to just over 3 million in August.
Reached for comment, BeReal said that estimate was inaccurate, but declined to share its market segmentation metrics.
Additionally, SimilarWeb told TechCrunch BeReal that the number of monthly active users globally has dropped to 16.06 million. This would be down from the 20 million reported last year – a number roughly in line with SimilarWeb estimates as of January 2022. This decline would perhaps not have been more significant except for the fact that BeReal’s usage has continued to grow in its home market of France. The app is approaching 615,000 monthly active users in August on Android, up from less than 500,000 users last year, Sameweb said.
BeReal responded to these findings as well, noting that its app has more than 25 million active users around the world. It also pointed out that third-party reports are merely estimates and its own internal figures are the most accurate.
Of course, it’s common for new social media apps to see a flurry of activity and usage before stabilizing, with some early adopters abandoning the experience and only loyal users being retained. But in the case of BeReal, the app was previously said to be struggling to maintain despite now adding new features and gaining notoriety as major social media companies dismantled the concept of front and back photos, including TikTok, Instagram and Snap.
application, was established By a former GoPro employee Alexis Barriat along with Kevin Biro, debuted on the market in December 2019 with an experience that mimicked old social app Frontback that also took advantage of the smartphone’s two cameras to take photos at the same time. To some extent, BeReal has grown through word of mouth, with the help of its partners College Ambassador Program And features like WidgetMoji and RealMoji — that is, home screen widgets and the ability to interact with stickers in iMessage conversations. But its rapid growth in 2022 was at a level that typically includes spending on marketing or advertising, not just organic adoption.
As it turned out, BeReal had the money to send it. The startup closed a $60 million Series B round earlier in 2022, valuing the company at just under $587 million.
Unfortunately for BeReal’s longevity, photos of what people are doing at a random time of day — when BeReal issues its push notification — aren’t always as interesting as the curated photos of special moments that users post on other photo-sharing platforms, like Instagram. Even some BeReal users have actually come to understand this They started organizing BeReals Or wait until they’re doing something worth sharing — like going out with their friends — before posting late.
Along with competition from social media giants, BeReal is now facing an explosion in other new social apps that demand users’ time, as countless competitors have emerged to challenge Twitter, now called X.
By comparison, Instagram’s new app Threads has more than twice as many users as BeReal in the United States, at about 7.3 million, Sameweb said. This is despite a massive decline in Threads usage shortly after its launch. In the third quarter, Threads jumped to 150 million downloads in its first week of launch in early July — 5.5 times faster than any other app, according to market intelligence firm data.ai. It even became the top app in terms of downloads this quarter, replacing TikTok as the new No. 1 app.
There’s also a new app called BeFake where users can post creative AI photos daily, which could have at least temporary appeal. The app has $3 million in funding. However, BeReal cannot capitalize on consumer demand for generative AI apps because it conflicts with its main thesis: that social media is fake and its app is about authenticity.
Meanwhile, Instagram’s flagship app still has more than 48 times as many users in the US as BeReal, Sameweb noted.
But in one small win, BeReal beats out Twitter/X competitor Bluesky, where it has nearly four times as many monthly active users. However, Bluesky is in private beta and users need an invitation to enter, so this is probably not a fair comparison.
However, even if BeReal’s internal metrics are accurate, growing from 20 million to 25 million daily active users in roughly a year doesn’t represent a massive increase. BeReal may need to figure out how to make its app more attractive to a broader group of users, which means more rapid development and testing of new features.