Be Real – App that notifies friends simultaneously to capture and share a photo | Hacker News Reader

Be Real – App that notifies friends simultaneously to capture and share a photo

bere.al

60 pointsmerrier26 comments

A good article on the app, https://slate.com/human-interest/2022/05/bereal-app-guide-ex..., complete with kids trying to game it by hanging around the Eiffel Tower until it was time to post https://www.tiktok.com/@hannahmorris74/video/707983303543624...

I feel like if my life was interesting enough for my photos to not be boring I wouldn't be bored enough to look at the pictures from other people.

The whole point is that they are supposed to be "boring" because everyones life is boring. It's the same reason you ask "Hey what are you up to" when you first call someone on the phone. You don't expect them to say, "About to launch into space with Elon Musk"

It's an app for your friends, not to follow influencers (unless you want to see the "real" life of an influencer)

It's the same reason you ask "Hey what are you up to" when you first call someone on the phone.

Christ I hate when people do that. It's like they want to be the arbiter of whether I'm using my time wisely. If you call someone up you should tell them what you want and let them decide whether they want to participate.

Or maybe giving the other person the chance to say they're busy first is more polite because they don't have to decline after they know what's on offer.

Or maybe they are curious about your life and are not judging you or want anything at all...

I mean if you don't want to connect with people then no worries but asking what someone is doing doesn't have to be malicious or transactional

Or maybe they are curious about your life and are not judging you or want anything at all

Unfortunately the only people who call me without warning are either family or someone from work, and they always want something. Even if they didn't, having to figure out the correct response to that question can be burdensome. The honest answer is usually either something they won't understand, won't see the value in, or is inappropriate to mention. If I say "nothing much", that translates to "of course I'm happy to sit here and listen to you talk about meaningless drivel for five minutes before asking me a favor."

I'm sorry. There are people in the world who will care about your honest answer even if they don't understand or it is of no "value" to them (I put quotes because it should be valuable to them because YOU value it not because they can "use" it). To me that's what a friend is, a relationship that is non-transactional where you connect with and support each other because you want to.

Hope you keep looking people who you can express your feelings and ideas to.

Not really a great perspective on casual conversations with friends.

A casual conversation over the telephone? If I'm texting back and forth with a friend and we're both clearly not doing anything else we might start an online call but it won't be an out of the blue telephone call.

But what about friends?

This sounded fun but I was immediately turned off due to the first two questions being full name and birthday. Maybe it’s required due to regulations somewhere but that’s not the type of thing I am willing to give out to try an app.

> turned off due to the first two questions being full name and birthday

Lie.

Lie?

It’s a form, you can enter anything you want. No one is checking your work.

Oooh, I thought you were calling me a liar. :facepalm:

I think it is reasonable to give your birthday +/- a few days.

For me and my generation we've found that Be Real feels much more personal and, as the name suggests, real. A lot of people liken it more to a finsta in the sense that you will put anything up there and not worry about it. Its a freeing feeling for us considering we all worry about what we post and who will see it all the time.

I’ve been using BeReal daily for a few weeks, and love it. It feels much more authentic than a lot of social media. Super unfiltered.

Does anyone else know an app that offers Be Real's "bothie" format of photo without the baggage of social? I'm on Android.

It seems very popular on tiktok but I’ve never met anyone who actually uses this app. Maybe it’s just teenagers?

Extremely popular with college students right now.

I have it on my Android phone, and I've seen one other person remotely close to my age (54). Mostly less than half my age. It is interesting to use the "Discovery" feature, where you just see random people from around the world doing whatever they're doing at that time. You'll never see them again, but it is still interesting.