Meta has announced news for Instagram, and although there are several of them, without a doubt the most striking of all is the one that recreates in its application the phenomenon of BeReal, which was also copied on TikTok, apparently without much luck. We’ll see if Instagram has the same luck.

In case you are confused, BeReal is the big news of 2022 as far as social networks are concernedwhich is a great success, even if it seems inherently difficult to establish itself in the current landscape, in which one way or another, for some niche or another, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and other platforms share the favor – and what is more important, the users’ time.

BeReal is a French social network that appeared in 2020, but whose hit began to take place only at the beginning of this year, especially among younger people, still the main focus of interest. It’s an Instagram-style photography platform, but with a quirk: users can only post one image per day when the app tells them to. that moment is two minutes that vary from day to dayfor more inri.

The complexity of BeReal is supposed to promote naturalness, unlike what happens with a lot of content on Instagram or TikTok, mostly fake and in many cases rightfully so. Not only that: in BeReal, If you don’t post, you won’t see what other users post or friends you’ve added there. It might sound like a big deal, but it ranked as one of the most downloaded apps of the year for Android and iPhone.

TikTok has already tried to copy BeReal, but with videos, through the Now feature, which forces you to post something to see what others have posted on Now. And now it’s Instagram’s turn, which with a new feature called Honest storieswhose translation could be something like honest stories, will do the same thing: it will trigger a daily notification with a posting time window, and only those who use it will see what others write.

Other innovations that Instagram is working on include notes, a kind of mini-message of up to 60 characters that can be used to decorate or report something in a user’s profile; and groups, which is exactly what it sounds like: Instagram limited to a group of people, so everything stays between family, friends, colleagues, etc. However, it is Candid Stories that make the biggest statement for the reasons mentioned, and that the giants are no longer innovating.

This was seen with Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts, both copied from TikTok, but also with the aforementioned TikTok Now, copied from BeReal. And the same makes more sense because a social network engagement as ephemeral as BeReal suggests may well function as a section within a more complete service. Again, we will have to see and even see if 2023 surprises us with another new trend.