TikTok has officially hopped on the BeReal bandwagon and honestly, the pressure to take another candid selfie every day is actually too much for me.
TikTok’s version of BeReal is called TikTok Now. First I need to be “real”, then I need to be “now”? It’s all too much.
Basically, in the US TikTok Now is part of the pre-existing TikTok app. Makes sense. That version launched earlier in September.
In the rest of the world though, TikTok Now is a whole seperate app.
It’s not available in Australia just yet, so you’ll just have to keep posting cursed selfies to BeReal for now.
Like BeReal, you’ll get a daily notification for TikTok Now. According to Elite Daily, it says “Time to Now” — an existential command if I’ve ever heard one. Users will then have three minutes to take their candid content, which is of course wildly different to BeReal’s two minute timer.
The thing that differentiates the ‘ol Tok from BeReal is the fact you can take a 10 second video as well as a picture. Great, video footage of the most boring part of my day as well as picture evidence!
In a media release, TikTok said the aim of TikTok Now was so people can “share [their] most authentic moments with the people who matter most”. Ah yes, the authentic moments of me either on the toilet, scrolling on my phone, or walking down the street looking my absolute worst.
Get ready for daily push notifications, prompting you to capture either a 10-second video or static photo of what you’re up to at that moment in time. 🎥 📸
— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) September 15, 2022
One of the other slight differences between TikTok Now and BeReal is the fact that you’ll actually be able to see how your selfie looks while taking it on the TikTok version.
I have mixed feelings about this. I’d be lying if I said I’ve never retaken a BeReal because the selfie element of it was cursed as fuck. But I also quite enjoy the mystery of the whole affair. Like, what does my face really look like at those angles?
You can post TikTok Nows either exclusively to your friends (AKA people you follow who follow you back) or to the explore page — unless you’re under 18, in which case it’s friends only. The explore page presumably shares similarities to BeReal’s discovery feed, which I must confess I’ve only ever looked at accidentally.
Instagram has already snipped the ‘ol BeReal grass with a Story function called “IG Candid Challenges”. The platform’s been testing the feature, which would see users having two minutes to take a candid pic.
So…BeReal then.
With all these apps leaning in to the BeReal-ification of social media, I’ll be expecting Twitter to launch some sort of timed candid feature next.
Maybe: “You have two minutes to Tweet your hottest take”. I reckon that could genuinely pop off.
