BeReal Chats When You Take a Screenshot

Taking a screenshot of someone else’s BeReal seems like a no-brainer. There is no feedback from the app, making it look like a screenshot of someone’s latest Instagram post or tweet. However, unbeknownst to many BeReal users, the app reports you whenever you take a screenshot. You just wouldn’t know if it didn’t happen to you.

If someone takes a screenshot of your BeReal, you will know about it. Now you will not receive a notification or alert from the app (it’s not Snapchat). However, when you look back at your last BeReal after someone takes a screenshot of it, you’ll see a new icon: a square with a number in the middle representing the number of screenshots of your BeReal taken so far.

You can also see the number of screenshots if you click on your BeReal, in addition to other metrics such as the number of RealMoji reactions and how public your BeReal is.

If you tap this new screenshot icon or screenshot metric, BeReal will explain that someone took a screenshot of your message and present a suggestion: share your BeReal with another app and you can see who took the screenshot. You also don’t have to share your BeReal with anyone else. You just need to make the app think you did it. Sending a text message or an email to BeReal to yourself is enough to reveal the name of the person who took the screenshot of your post.

It’s funny how BeReal decides to handle screenshots. Other apps like Snapchat will let you know instantly when someone decides to run away with your image. But BeReal seems to be turning screenshot alerts into a growth strategy: The company wants you to share your BeReal with other people whenever someone takes a screenshot of your post, which increases the chances of new users on the platform.

However, this is an odd strategy given that you don’t actually have to share your post with anyone but yourself, which defeats the purpose of the company. But besides that, BeReal does not promote this part of the application at all. Someone has to take a screenshot of your BeReal before you know the feature exists, and even then the icon used is so subtle it’s easy to miss.

For example, I’m not cool enough for someone else to take a screenshot of one of my posts. I only learned about this feature from this TikTok that hit my feed. It’s not in the privacy policy or the app’s terms of service ( I checked ), meaning you’ll only know if someone takes a screenshot of your post, or from a social ad like this TikTok, or from an article you’re reading directly now.

More…

Leave a Reply