Time To Be Real.

The Latest and Greatest Social App

Time+To+Be+Real.

Brendan Staff, Staff Writer

If a random person has asked you to take a picture of them and their friends, bad news, you are out there on social media somewhere. The good news is you’re only out there for a day. Be Real is the latest and greatest social media app, popularized by its ability to share and display pictures through other apps like Instagram and Tik Tok.

What is Be Real? The simple definition is that is is an app for sharing one picture a day to your friends. When the app is first downloaded, users are prompted to enter their time zone. Once a day, everyone in the time zone will receive a notification on their phone, all at the same time, reading, “Time To Be Real”. At this moment, users will open the app and have 2 minutes take a picture, capturing whatever is going on around them at this time. You might be wondering, “What happens if you take the picture after the 2 minute time period?” Well nothing really, the app will tell your friends that your picture was taken late and your friends might make fun of you, but besides that, nothing really happens.

The way the app is able to capture the entire moment is by utilizing both the front and back facing cameras on the phone. This allows viewers to see what the person is doing as well as a reaction or selfie of the picture taker. This makes for hilarious moments when a random person thinks they are just taking a picture of a group of friends, not knowing everyone would be able to see them on the other side.

Another key feature of Be Real that makes it stand out is the real moji. This is a feature that allows users to react to their friends’ Be Real by making their own emoji with their own face representing each emoji. Users can also so an instant reaction, which is a picture of the reaction at the exact time they view another Be Real.

While the app seems like a breath of fresh air compared to the stale social media apps on the market right now, the app is not very functional. Notifications have trouble being seen by many users. When the notification does appear, often times users open the app to the same slate of pictures from the day before, not prompted to take a new picture. Users also experience difficulty viewing their friends’ pictures, often not showing up on some users’ feed.

Will this new app be able to fix its issues and stay relevant, or will it die off in a very competitive day and age of social media apps?