• by Colin Kirkland , January 24, 2024

BeReal, the purposefully unglamorous one-post-per-day social-media platform, is making an effort to integrate brands and celebrities in what could be the company’s first move toward welcoming ads.

Starting Feb. 6, BeReal is inviting brands and celebrities to join the platform under the titles “RealBrands” or “RealPeople.”

In line with the company’s goal to “create a more authentic world,” BeReal is asking brands and celebrities to share behind-the-scenes moments from their lives that they would not share on other social platforms.

“Official accounts will allow you to add some of your favorite celebrities and brands to your BeReal experience, and see who they are outside of the spotlight,” the company wrote in a blog post.

Users will be able to engage with brands’ and celebrities’ content by becoming a “RealFan.” From there, they can tag those brands and celebrities in their own posts, giving the brands and celebrities the chance to re-share the post on their own accounts, similar to tags on Instagram Stories.

“We believe that by showing that notable people and brands are actually people just like us -- equally boring and interesting at different times -- we help reset and improve some of the negativity that come from modern social platforms,” BeReal said.

BeReal, known to many as the “anti-Instagram app,” officially launched in 2020 and has stayed close to its mission of presenting a more realistic representation of self by asking users to post simultaneous unfiltered glimpses into their daily lives.

To help ensure authenticity, the amount of time a user waits to snap a picture after the initial daily alert appears is included under their timeline photo.

The platform, which is especially popular among U.S. teens, has continued to grow over the past three years -- amassing 25 million daily active users and rolling out a multitude of new features, including groups, mentions, the chance to post multiple times a day, pinned posts and a “friends of friends” feed.

BeReal originally tested its RealPeople feature back in May, calling it a curated timeline of “the world’s most interesting people…from top athletes, artists, activists, and everything in between.”

In an effort to differentiate itself from advertising-heavy social apps like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, BeReal said that the RealPeople content would not include any photoshopped pictures, product recommendations, or ads disguised as posts.

However, like all other social-media companies established with the focus on connecting people, BeReal is facing the issue of monetization -- an issue solved either by selling user subscriptions or selling ads.

The company claims that this new feature will not change its focus, assuring users that it “will always be about friends and close connections first,” but it is likely that by inviting brands into the BeReal ecosystem, the company is considering the possibility of earning revenue via ads.