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The BeReal app sensation—famous for its daily front-and-back photo sharing limited to a 2-minute window—seemed like it could be a fad. But usage continues to increase, and the imitation (flattery?) of other platforms may be the surest sign yet of the app’s potential longer-term success.

Meet TikTok Now.

TikTok Now’s features are nearly identical to BeReal:

• You capture your post using both the front and back camera.

• A daily prompt will tell you when to post.

• You can’t see other friends’ TikTok Now posts until you’ve posted yours for the day.

The addition of video: The only noticable difference—other than it happens within the overarching TIkTok app instead of in a stand-alone app—is that with TIkTok now, in addition to posting static images, you also have the option to capture a 10-second video.

Beating the competition: TikTok isn’t the only one coming after BeReal:

• Instagram appeared to be copying BeReal last month when a prototype leaked.

• Snapchat also rolled out a front-and-back recording feature in August. (Snap had actually been working on something like this since at least April.)

While TikTok’s BeReal answer comes a month after these examples, TikTok’s feature is the most direct clone of TikTok to enter the social media space since it includes both the front-and-back capture and the daily timed posting window. has beaten Meta to the punch by targeting BeReal very directly with a product it’s calling TikTok Now.

TikTok Now is available in the US within the TikTok app, and “may be available as a new TikTok Now app” in other regions. You can learn more in TikTok’s Support section.

Why it Matters

BeReal is clearly a concern for the social media giants. With business models that depend on keeping users coming back to their apps, TikTok and others want to decrease the need for their audience to spend time elsewhere.

Since the BeReal experience is focused on user-to-user interaction (at least for now), this likely won’t have a huge impact on social media marketers for the time being. But if nothing else, it will be important to keep tabs on which of these experiences (if any) win out in the coming months to see what the broader impact on social media preferences will be.