Instagram in particular and social networks in general are increasingly used by friends of others who often find here a good breeding ground to get other people’s data. Although until recently it was a Whastapp message in which a person pretended to be a relative of the recipient to try to get him to give him money to catch a flight, now it is Instagram where the Police are looking to alert of a new scam which must be disseminated as much as possible to prevent fraud from occurring.
The mechanism in this scam, as in all, is quite simple. A user sends us a message similar to the following: “I’m trying to log in to my old Instagram account but it won’t let me so they told me to write to any Instagram user to help me get a login link, could you help me?”. The person pretends to be a friend of the recipient but is not. Then he sends you a fraudulent link.
Instagram Changes
Recently, Instagram has launched a functionality similar to that which characterizes BeRealthe ability to take a picture from different perspectives, with the selfie camera and the rear camera.
This is Instagram Dual, available in the Stories section, which is located after the ‘Create’, ‘Boomerang’, ‘Design’ and ‘Hands-free’ options. Unlike BeReal, which only allows you to take photos, Instagram offers the possibility of creating videos with this feature.
Likewise, this social network, owned by Meta, does have different filters and editing alternatives for its ‘stories’, something that BeReal lacks.
BeReal has become one of the social networks of the moment for the so-called Generation Z in Spain and in an alternative to Instagramwith a proposal that is far from this platform and offers a notification system that prompt users to post a daily image.
Since its launch in December 2019, this French app has risen in popularity in the last year and accumulated more than a million downloads in the Play Store, being the most downloaded social network at the moment within the iOS App Store.
So much so that the number of active monthly users of the ‘app’, which is freehas shot up 350 percent year over year, according to data compiled by Apptopia and published in early April.
By markets, Spain appeared in mid-May as the fourth in number of downloads, according to Data.Ai. By user profile, Generation Z is the great protagonist especially in countries like Australia, Brazil and France. There, 80 percent of iOS device users are between the ages of 16 and 24.
After downloading the app, it prompts users to import and sync contacts that already have a user in it to start building their community. In addition, they can be searched by copying the URL of their profile or adding their corresponding usernames in the Finder.
improvisation reigns
The proposal of BeReal distances this ‘app’ from the rest of social networks, like Instagram. To do this, it forces its users to improvise and stop looking for the perfect frame in their publications, to encourage improvisation.
Every day, all BeReal users receive a notification at a random time, which varies throughout the week. From the time it receives the notice, the ‘app’ grants two minutes to take a photograph from two perspectives at the same time: that of the rear and front lens of the ‘smartphone’.
The user can repeat the photo an unlimited number of times within that two-minute window, but once posted, the image can only be deleted and replayed once. In addition, the ‘app’ does not have filters or other editing mechanisms, unlike other applications of this type.
That way, only one photo can be uploaded daily, and if the user doesn’t upload it within two minutes of receiving this notification, they can post an image later. However, its entire user base receives the notice at the same time, so any subsequent publication is outside of BeReal’s dynamics.
The photo posted by the user is displayed in their ‘feed’ for the next 24 hours, that you will be able to receive comments and reactions with a ‘selfie’ called RealMoji, which disappears after that time limit.
Biblioteca ‘My Memories’
Likewise, all images are stored in the library of images called ‘My Memories’ (‘My memories’), to which only the users themselves have access and where they are registered monthly. That way, on the last day of the month you can continue viewing the image uploaded on day 1.
To see the photos shared by other contacts in the ‘app’, users must previously upload a photo of themselves. In the case of not doing so, they cannot view the images of other users until 24 hours after prior notification.
These photographs are arranged in two sections. The first of these is ‘My Friends’ (‘My friends’), where the images of the contacts are displayed. Next to this is ‘Discovery’ (‘Discover’) in which you can also view the photos of other users.
In this sense, it should be remembered that, when uploading the daily image, users will be able to choose whether they want to share it with their contacts exclusively or in the ‘Discovery’ section, in view of the other BeReal users.