Instagram confirms it has a feature called 'Candid Challenges' that works very much like BeReal

Instagram was recently found to be working on a feature that works very much like the rising social media app BeReal. The Meta-owned social media giant confirmed the feature, which could be named “Candid Challenges,” exists but only as an “internal prototype” at the moment.

Mobile developer and reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi recently discovered that Instagram is working on a feature it currently calls “IG Candid Challenges.” A prompt for the feature reveals that Instagram would send a notification “every day at a different time” to remind the user to share a photo. And much like BeReal, users would only have two minutes to capture said photo and upload it as part of the Candid Challenge.

In another post, Paluzzi showed what the Instagram camera would look like when used to capture a Candid Challenge image. There are not that many options on the screen, but it will likely look familiar to anyone who has used BeReal.

It also appears that the Instagram camera for Candid Challenges is designed to take photos from the front and back sensors of the device. At the bottom of the screen, there appears to be an option to share the candid photo to IG Stories.

Instagram confirmed the existence of Candid Challenges to Engadget but noted that it is currently meant as an “internal prototype.” The social media company said it is “not testing externally” the potential BeReal clone.

The main concept of BeReal is somewhat an antithesis to what Instagram is currently known for. The latter is popular for its array of filters and other editing tools that allows users to highly improve the appearance of their posts. But BeReal leaves almost no room for users to tweak their images before sharing them with their friends.

Aside from having only two minutes to take a BeReal photo, the app has very limited options to delete potentially unflattering posts. It would even ask the user to provide a reason why they want to delete a BeReal before taking down a post.

While it is still too early to call BeReal the next TikTok, its rising popularity this year (especially among Gen Z) is definitely worth noting. In an update this week, Apptopia reported BeReal had been downloaded 43.3 million times since its launch in December 2019.

That number may not be staggering compared to TikTok, but take note that 41 million of those installs were made this year alone, with 40 percent of the new users from the United States. In an earlier report last April (in the same blog post), Apptopia said BeReal’s monthly active users have grown 315 percent year-to-date. And this trend should explain why Instagram has a prototype of a BeReal-esque Candid Challenge.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash