Social media app development like BeReal

Many Instagram users would like to see an unedited snapshot snapped in the spur of the moment rather than a well-crafted, curated, and altered one. The unconventional approach of BeReal app to social networking and virtual conversation is what consumers appreciate most about it. There are now more than 21 million people using the app every month.

BeReal allows us a glimpse into the routines of our friends at any given time. It makes us less self-conscious about the fact that we aren’t always exciting and flawless, and it also occasionally generates intriguing moments for us to talk about. So, if you want a similar app for your business, let’s understand everything about the BeReal app.

How BeReal App Works?

BeReal is a photo-sharing mobile app for use on social networking platforms. This isn’t anything new, is it? This kind of feature availability is already provided by social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and even Facebook. But what sets BeReal apart from the rest?

• BeReal notifies its users once a day at a time chosen at random. The notification asks users to upload pictures using their front and rear cameras. 
• This app’s primary function is to display original, unedited shots taken in response to a notice. 
• Photos may always be retaken or uploaded later, but your friends will know.
• Only users with each other’s profiles in their friend lists can see each other’s unstaged and natural images. This is done so that users would feel more comfortable sharing their photos. Furthermore, a user’s photo might be made public depending on their current location.
• An individual’s response to a photo posted on BeReal is just as noteworthy as the photo itself. Users can post selfies and emoticons to express their thoughts on an image; they’ve given these their name, ‘Realmojis.’

The idea of BeReal is that you should be open and candid about what’s going on in your life at any given moment. It inspires you to be yourself, share your experiences, and to stop second-guessing yourself. BeReal is trying to get a generation that grew up with Instagram filters and influencer marketing to appreciate the simpler things in life. 

To conclude, BeReal is a secure place to post photos while doing daily chores and to receive an instant reaction in the form of another photo rather than a text message. That’s why BeReal became so popular: you can learn interesting details about your friend’s and family’s everyday life with little to no effort.

Features Of The BeReal App To Include In Your Application

Let’s delve deeper into the features of this app now that we understand the fundamentals of BeReal and how it operates. Here are some of the most important aspects to consider while designing a social app for sharing photos, like BeReal:

1. User Signup And Login

A user must either sign up for a new profile or sign in with an existing one before using the app’s features. Many services now provide a variety of sign-in methods, including email, phone number, social network, and Apple ID, providing flexibility in how a user wants to access their accounts. 

Many developers use firebase’s authentication mechanism, which allows users to sign up and log in with the app.

2. Push Notifications

For a social media app like BeReal, push notifications are a must-have. Why? The reason is – the precise notification reminds users to snap their daily photographs. Since few users are likely to often access the app, it is crucial to implement push notifications rather than traditional in-app alerts.

In the BeReal app, within the two minutes following the notification, the user must take the necessary action to record the moment. If they don’t update their photo in time, it will be marked as late in the app, but it will still be viewable. 

Firebase and amazon simple notification service (SNS) are popular choices for building push notification systems into mobile apps.

3. Discovery

The images of nearby users, however, are also accessible. These individuals made their photographs public, so others could view them based on their geolocation. Mobile app developers will leverage APIs for things like GPS and maps to provide this functionality to their consumers.

The iPhone utilizes Google APIs in addition to Core Location and Apple MapKit. Google services, including Google geolocation, Google directions API, Google distance matrix, and Google places, are utilized for Android’s geolocation capabilities.

4. Feed

Let’s focus now on the feed, which is the essential part of the application. This is the “My Friends” tab in BeReal, as the app’s feed will only show photos from friends you’ve added. An increasingly popular method of organizing feeds in social networks is to display the content solely from the people one follows.

5. Upload A Photo

Now we’ll go on to the most important component of BeReal and any other picture-sharing program available — uploading a photo. Your app relies on camera API, which grants the app access to the device’s camera.

An application programming interface (API) is a set of routines that allow the software to interact quickly with a device’s hardware. BeReal requests access to the front and rear cameras like any other social networking app. The geolocation API is also necessary to allow users to set the visibility of their photos according to their present location.

6. Comments And Realmojis

Users can respond to any image by sending a remark. Realmojis and texts are both acceptable (selfies with emojis). Since BeReal’s Realmoji functionality is exclusive, you should come up with your own unique emoji to react to postings in your own app.

7. Memories

While the photographs you take with BeReal may be available almost immediately, it doesn’t guarantee they’ll stick around forever. Like Instagram’s stories feature, BeReal’s memories section allows users to reflect on their past uploads.

The ability to preserve photos is crucial, as many rely only on their social media accounts to keep track of their memories. Thus, cloud storage is essential for allowing users to save and retrieve their photographs. You may, for instance, choose the Amazon web services cloud platform.

8. Settings

Lastly, a characteristic that not many people pay a great deal of attention to but most certainly really should. Users can customize the application to their preferences inside the ‘settings menu’, which ensures that they will always feel secure and at ease when using the software. 

Users have control over their in-app experience because they may select the language they wish to use, the quantity of personal data they wish to provide, the alerts they wish to get, the level of privacy maintained by the app, and so on.

BeReal has 73.5 million monthly active users and 20 million access the app daily. It has been downloaded 67 million times since launch, with the vast majority of those downloads happening in 2022.

– Business of Apps

Development Steps For An App Like BeReal

1. Research 

1. BeReal app is targeted at Gen Z with an aim to maintain raw moments and the reality of life. 
2. To create an app like BeReal, as a business, you can research existing social media platforms to see how they make money and identify any gaps that your own creation may fill.
3. Determine your app’s target demographic and features.
4. However, limiting your attention to a smaller subset of your potential customers is more efficient than trying to appeal to everyone. For instance, LinkedIn caters specifically to those in the workforce.
5. Before you proceed with your app development to make it stand out, here are some analysis for BeReal:
   • Its core functionality prevents waste of time.
   • It exposes life unfiltered.
   • There is no provision for followers.
   • BeReal overlooks profile verification.

2. Hire An App Development Firm

1. There are various ways to find app developers, including posting freelance jobs, employing in-house developers, and contracting the work to an app development firm.
2. If you need a mobile app developed, you should choose a professional app development company since they have the resources, expertise, and experience to get the job done.
3. Look for the best app development companies on sites like Clutch, Linkedin, GoodFirms, etc. Be sure to look at examples of their previous work.
4. You may learn more about their social media app creation expertise by inquiring about any past client-facing social networking applications they’ve created.

3. Create UX/UI 

1. In the BeReal app, the designing part has been conducted around two factors that allow for a smooth experience with social media:
   • Simple interface
   • Minimal profile elements

2. The app has a darker UI — a black background that lets users focus on the content uploaded by their circle.
3. Along with this, the app has its own set of emojis called “RealMojis” that gives users a personal experience, and there are no filters available.
4. To attain a similar feel that the BeReal app delivers to its users, designers can proceed with their research and designs, keeping minimalism in mind. 
5. Many designers begin with research before diving into wireframing and user interface design. Research that are conducted before a design is created includes:
   • Establishing a framework for analyzing market tendencies
   • Prioritizing the features
   • A journey map and user flow diagram

6. The design team will develop wireframes or low-fidelity prototypes that define the app’s displays based on the results. 
7. In the following phase, once approved, high-fidelity prototypes will be created that show off the app as it will ultimately look. In this area, designers will:
   • Showcase your app’s most useful functions prominently on the main screen.
   • Make sure everything can be easily found and used and that navigating the app is simple.
   • Make a wireframe of your social media app to get a sense of how user-friendly it will be.

8. To make a better version of an  BeReal app , designers can implement new features like adding a simple section for captions, better ways for username timestamp, etc., or improvise the existing features.

4. Work Around Features And API

It’s time to give reality to the UI/UX design. The development process may vary based on the chosen platform.

1. Swift is the programming language used to create an iOS app from scratch.
2. Kotlin is used for developing Android apps in their native environment.
3. If you require apps for both iOS and Android, a cross-platform strategy is a good option. In this manner, you will obtain a single program capable of running on both the iOS and Android platforms.
4. Lastly, incorporate all the selected app features into a finished product to make your social networking platform user-friendly.
5. Develop or integrate application programming interfaces (APIs) for your social networking platform to enable two-way communication between your app and website.

5. Tech Stack 

Analyzing BeReal’s technology stack is essential to research for anybody wanting to create a similar product. According to BeReal, the following are the technologies on which it was built:

Backend:	Google Cloud Platform
Server-side:	Kubernetes, Node.js, Redis, and PostgreSQL
Programming language for iOS:	Swift
Programming language for Android:	Kotlin
Platform:	Native

6. Testing

Make sure your social networking app has no bugs or other problems. It’s important to make sure that all of the features and buttons of your social networking app are working properly. You may enhance your social networking app by putting it through a beta testing procedure and listening to the comments of early adopters.

7. Launch Your App

As soon as you’ve given it a thorough once over, you may release it to the public on your chosen platforms, such as the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. Before releasing your app, check that it complies with all the standards set by app publishers. You may target and entice your potential customers to download your social networking app by engaging in in-app marketing.

When attempting to replicate a popular social networking app like  BeReal, it’s crucial to avoid making a carbon copy. When looking through the complete list of BeReal’s capabilities, you may have seen certain aspects that seem like great ideas while others seem unnecessary. Perhaps some enhancements might be made to the UI for the sake of the user’s experience. You should bear all of this in mind if you want your app to compete with BeReal rather than just be a carbon clone of it.

Get Yourself An App Like BeReal!

By methodically working through the full-cycle app development process, you can guarantee that your app’s feature set is grounded in actual user demands, that the design is optimal, and that the app is ultimately ready for release. Further, an experienced mobile app development firm like Idea Usher will assist you on how to best apply technology to your business. So if you want to acquire a social media app like BeReal or a clone app, know that experts at Idea Usher are there to make it real for you.

Get in touch with us now!

Contact Idea Usher at [email protected]

Or reach out at: (+1)732 962 4560, (+91)859 140 7140

FAQs

What is BeReal?

BeReal is the easiest way to keep in touch with friends and family by sharing a snapshot from your daily life. Everyone takes a snapshot within 2 minutes, once every day, at a random time. Learn what your friends are up to by taking pictures and posting them quickly.

Does everyone receive BeReal simultaneously?

In contrast to other photo-sharing apps like Instagram and VSCO, BeReal only enables users to upload a single photo at an unspecified time of day. Each day at a different moment, users in all time zones receive an identical notification from BeReal.

How to clone BeReal app?

Listed below are some suggestions and guidelines for making your app concept a reality.

1. Document the name of the app and all of its features
2. Conduct in-depth market analysis
3. Acknowledge your targets
4. Pick a technology and platform to start
5. Determine your method of monetization
6. Come up with a quick wireframe/sketch
7. Find a company that can help you create an app and get estimates
8. Finalize the design, coding, and testing of the UI/UX App
9. Spread the word and release the app
10. Compile market feedback and work on improvisation

How does BeReal make money?

Ad-free is something immediately noticeable to anybody who has used the BeReal app at least once. On top of that, there is zero cost involved. The current source of BeReal’s funding comes exclusively from capital investments.