Gen Z has had enough with unrealistic depictions of life on social media: Launched in 2020 by French entrepreneurs Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau, a relatively new social media platform called BeReal has rapidly gained popularity in recent months among many Gen Zers (those born between 1997 and 2012) for its no-BS approach to life online. The emergence of BeReal and similar kinds of anti-fame apps, with the number of users they’ve so far drawn, might indicate a weariness towards older platforms where the pursuit of viral content and enormous follower counts have made online experiences less personal and often frustrating.

Unfiltered and unremarkable: The idea behind BeReal is simple: It aims to drive more authentic engagement on its app by requiring users to snap and post two photos (one through your front camera and the other from the back) daily before being granted access to their feeds. Users typically get a random notification at some point during the day, giving them a two-minute window to post whatever it is they’re doing at the time — no matter how boring or mundane. It is partially because of these constraints that some have called the app the “anti Instagram,” and for many these kinds of casual online exchanges, reminiscent of the early days of social media, are exactly what’s so appealing about BeReal.

Are TikTok and Instagram no longer cool? At the core of BeReal’s rise is a general sense of dissatisfaction among younger cohorts of consumers with older and/or larger social media giants like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, that reward virality and more polished depictions of people’s lives. The incentive for people to amass some level of fame or influence — two central components of what make TikTok and Instagram so engaging — is another place where big tech companies seem to lose out on the battle over authenticity. BeReal explicitly tries to distance itself from these platforms for precisely this reason: “BeReal won’t make you famous. If you want to become an influencer you can stay on TikTok and Instagram,” the app’s description reads.

But some think this (still) reeks of BS: Though the restrictions baked into the way BeReal functions seems to at least limit how highly curated people’s online personas can be, it still can’t do away with the fundamental issue of performance so deeply embedded in the way users interact with larger platforms, the New Yorker writes. This potentially makes the whole enterprise of authenticity over a social media platform a futile pursuit. Instagram has also seen a rise in what Mashable dubs “casual” posting, where users post content that appears to be imperfect, but actually requires just as much curation and energy behind the scenes. “Casual Instagram is all about a studied carelessness … but like anything on social media, it’s still a performance.”

And there’s the “all-in or all-out” dilemma: There’s also the problem of constant engagement that BeReal demands through its requirement that users post daily to be able to see others’ content, which could set in motion entirely new problems — like over-engagement and burnout.

Some have big expectations for alternative social media apps: It’s not yet clear how financially lucrative this anti-attention social media wave will turn out but backers are already putting money behind this new crop of apps. Since its inception, BeReal has ascended to the top spot in Apple’s list of top apps at no charge on its App Store with a total of some 28 mn downloads as of August. The company is also reportedly in the process of closing a funding round led by Yuri Milner’s DST Global that will send its valuation skyrocketing to some USD 630 mn. This comes after the company in June raised USD 30 mn in a series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Meanwhile, Locket, another close circle app that allows users to send photos directly to friends’ home screens, has recently raised some USD 12.5 mn through a funding round led by OpenAI’s Sam Altman.

Then again, this could just be another micro trend: There is of course the possibility that apps like BeReal will be subject to the same fate as once popular platforms like Clubhouse, which saw a swift rise and fall at the height of the pandemic. The looming threat of having a larger and better funded competitor come in with a copy — which Instagram is reportedly already working on — might help bring its popularity to a halt by absorbing users craving a more toned down form of social media.