BeReal Wins Apple iPhone App of The Year - Entrepreneur

BeReal, the venture-backed upstart societal media app that allows users to station one, timed photograph per day, won Apple's "iPhone App of the Year" designation connected Tuesday.

NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty Images BeReal app.

The exertion institution honors a big of apps each year, focusing "honor excellence successful innovation, ingenuity, and method accomplishment successful app and crippled design," the institution says, successful categories similar "Mac App of the Year" and "Apple Watch App of the Year."

Other winners see enactment taking app GoodNotes 5 for iPad App of the Year and a genealogy app MacFamilyTree 10 for Mac App of the Year.

This year, determination were besides taste interaction awardees, which absorption connected apps that "made a lasting interaction connected people's lives and influenced culture," including Dot's Home, which successful its app signifier is simply a social-justice-oriented single-player video game.

Related: What Is BeReal? This Buzzy New App Has TikTok Playing Copycat

The iPhone grant winner, BeReal, pings ("It's clip to BeReal") its users astatine a prescribed, adaptable clip a day, and asks them to instrumentality a beforehand and backmost camera photo. You tin station aboriginal than the acceptable time, but you can't spot your friend's photos until you station yours.

"BeReal gives users an authentic look into the lives of their household and friends," Apple said successful a related property release.

BeReal launched successful January 2020 by France-based Alexis Barreyat, who erstwhile worked for GoPro. But it's not rather a scrappy upstart: BeReal app is backed by task superior royalty, to the tune of a $30 cardinal bid A circular led by Andreessen Horowitz.

It does not look to person an evident gross root astatine present. The institution says connected its property leafage (the institution declined to remark connected the grant specifically) that the app is free, does not person ads, and the institution does not program to enactment with brands.

"We privation to instrumentality astir for arsenic agelong arsenic you'll person us," the institution wrote. "There are a batch of chill things we privation to build, and we're precise fortunate to beryllium capable to prioritize our clip this way. We guarantee you, erstwhile we're acceptable to stock information, you'll know."

The institution has besides not shared download numbers publicly, but it did antecedently accidental successful a Greenhouse posting it has implicit 10 cardinal progressive regular users.

The app has been fashionable capable that it's reportedly competitors similar TikTok and Instagram into creating akin concepts.

My member wins astatine BeReal #queensfuneral pic.twitter.com/3ScxeIHsTn

Still, it doesn't look similar BeReal cares. As the New York Times puts it, "BeReal captures our nostalgia for a clip erstwhile societal media was boring."

"BeReal won't marque you famous, if you privation to go an influencer you tin enactment connected TikTok and Instagram," the institution says connected its information sheet.