BeReal’s active users appear to be exiting the platform in droves, with the number of active users dropping by 18% since it peaked in November of last year. The app gained a substantial number of active users in 2022 but now has a shrinking userbase that’s far smaller than its social media counterparts, according to a report by Similarweb. But BeReal insists these numbers are inaccurate.
The number of people actively using BeReal on Android and iOS dropped from 3.7 million users in November to roughly three million in August, Similarweb found.
BeReal was first launched in France in 2020, and within the country, Similarweb reports that the number of active users continues to climb, reaching 615,000 monthly active users in France alone, up from 500,000 in November of last year. But, according to the release, the app’s overall global user base is suffering. The Similarweb report said the number of monthly active iOS users on BeReal declined from 3.7 million in 2022 to three million in August, while Android users dropped 19% going from 19.5 million in December to about 16 million in August.
However, a BeReal spokesperson said in an email to Gizmodo that the numbers are from a “third-party analytics company that provides estimates,” and claimed they are not an accurate representation of the platforms’ current number of active users.
“We can confirm that the estimates provided in third-party reports are not accurate,” the BeReal spokesperson told Gizmodo. “We can share with you that today BeReal has over 25 million daily active users around the world.” The company referenced an email sent to Gizmodo in June that reported it had 20 million daily active users globally, and said it shows “we have been growing at a healthy rate.”
BeReal started out as a unique way to share a quick photo of where the user was, what they were doing, and who they were with to bring it back to the basics of a person showing their unique, true self. In the following months, the company worked to add features that included messaging, the option to post more photos than just one per day, and a “Friends of Friends” discovery feed.
Yet BeReal’s efforts to implement features on the app were slow to roll out, failing to add more than only a few features between June 2022 and April 2023 which has not done much in the way of swaying young users to gravitate towards the platform.
Night Noroña, a 17-year-old high school student in California, told The New York Times in April that after a few months, the app became monotonous and he shifted his attention elsewhere. “Gen Z hops on trains really fast, but they hop off even faster,” Noroña told the outlet.
At the time, BeReal posted a somewhat defensive press release on its site, telling users: “We’ve been quiet because we’re more into doing than talking.”
In their email, aside from claiming the platform is growing, the BeReal spokesperson added that it is now working on “exciting new features” intended to roll out this year but did not specify what those features will be or precisely when they should be expected.