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TikTok, TikTok: Is time running out for BeReal?

September 2022

Well, it's official, BeReal's first exact copycat is none other than... yup, you guessed it, TikTok.

While Instagram and Snapchat have released similar front and back camera functionally, TikTok is the first app to outright mimic BeReal.

In a press release, TikTok announced a new feature of their app called 'TikTok Now', which they believe will give creators a way to “foster authentic and spontaneous connections”

“TikTok Now invites you and your friends to capture what you’re doing in the moment using your device’s front and back camera. You’ll receive a daily prompt to capture a 10-second video or a static photo to easily share what you’re up to.” the TikTok statement reads.

Image Credits: TikTok
We caught up with our social media strategist, Danielle Dullaghan, to get her hot take on TikTok's latest news. Here's what she had to say...

Is it “being real” we love or do we all have push notification FOMO?

Right - let’s be honest, for the most part, we’re not really being real, are we? We’re hanging on for a good moment, waiting to be doing something that could be perceived as having a fun social life with a few “realish" moments thrown in for good measure. BeReal gives us the opportunity to post a less filtered version of ourselves, well, at least physically. There’s no facetuning these pics, but we can curate our BeReal content to some degree. BeReal users are now also being more cautious of who they add on their profiles, we don’t want everyone we know seeing our unfiltered-ish lives. It’s like a close friend's story.

While BeReal (and now TikTok) offers a more “real” social media experience (how real is questionable) there’s a novelty in the push notification. You must post now, and if you don’t you’ve just missed being a part of a live moment. It’s like watching the XFactor in 2011 on a Saturday night, if you weren’t watching and live tweeting #TeamLittleMix, then where were you?

Image Credits: TikTok

Enter: The Push Notification FOMO 

It’s getting significantly more difficult to keep users on social apps for longer. So how are these platforms going to get you revisiting and staying, other than through addictive content and algorithms? FOMO inducing push notifications, with the ‘warning’ emoji, for that added anxiety.

Meta tries to get their users back on the platform with the memories function & going live notifications - but is it enough? 

Push Notification FOMO isn’t new, for those who remember HQ Trivia (RIP 2020) was a quiz game app that would send you a push notification when it was time to play along - just like BeReal you’d get the notification, stop what you were doing and join in.  Could we see the platforms adapt a novelty push notification to try and incite FOMO and bring users back onto their apps, just like BeReal & TikTok?

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