BeReal is having an interesting impact on how businesses validate products. It’s showing up in the real world, not the Insta-perfect one.

If you haven’t seen it yet, BeReal is a social media app that asks users to share genuine, unfiltered images of themselves once a day.

It’s basically a social-style game that gets you to share a photo of yourself within a short period, with no time to stage a phony perfect life. Nobody is there for fake perfection or to showboat.

This limited focus and lack of ads makes it very different from what other social apps encourage.

I like that.

Fading are the days of staged influencer posts and perfectly lit unboxings.

Today’s consumers want to see your product in the wild, under normal lighting, at awkward angles.

Real life is unfiltered. And that’s exactly what we need.

There are plenty of innovative and still on-point ways product makers can use BeReal. If you want to reach Gen Z, remember that no other generation cares as much about authenticity.

Think about it:

• BeReal shows products in real situations. It explicitly discourages influencer culture.
• Reddit threads dissect every product claim
• Discord communities share unvarnished feedback

I spend lots of time exploring how products succeed when they solve genuine needs. These platforms expose those needs faster and more honestly than any focus group.

Smart product makers are adapting in a bunch of ways:

• Testing prototypes in BeReal-style environments
• Showing behind-the-scenes looks into YOUR real culture
• Encouraging (for real) authentic user content
• Building Discord communities pre-launch
• Learning from natural, unscripted feedback

Action for today: Find where your target users gather authentically. Are they already using BeReal? The truest feedback is your best path forward, and new ways keep emerging to get it.

Need help validating your product in today’s unfiltered world? Great! Graphos Product has been guiding innovators through market validation for over 30 years. Reach out if you’d like to discuss your testing strategy.

Laurier

Product Payoff: When GoPro launched the Hero7 camera, the brand let users create their marketing content. GoPro went on to capture 97% dollar share and 87% unit share of the action camera category in the U.S. that quarter. The clear authenticity helped build a billion-dollar brand!