Instagram is testing a version of BeReal called ‘IG Candid Challenges,’ which is similar to BeReal.

The biggest copycat in big tech strikes again. After using Reels to mimic TikTok in the main feed, Instagram now wants Stories to mimic BeReal.

 

Meta, the biggest copycat in big tech, is at it again. According to Alessandro Paluzzi, a well-known leaker and reverse engineer, Meta-owned Instagram is testing its own version of BeReal, one of the hottest new social media apps at the moment.

 

On Monday, Paluzzi shared screenshots of the testing feature, dubbed ‘IG Candid Challenges.’ Instagram told Engadget that it was working on an internal prototype of the feature but declined to elaborate. Gizmodo reached out to Instagram for comment on Tuesday morning but received no response by the time this article was published. According to the leaker, Candid Challenges will appear in the app’s story section and will be opt-in. If users choose to participate, they will receive a notification at a different time every day prompting them to take a picture in two minutes, according to Paluzzi. Does this sound familiar? That’s the same time frame in which BeReal prompts users to take and share a photo. The app, which bills itself as a more immediate and authentic alternative to Instagram, prompts users to share a front-and-back snapshot within two minutes of clicking on a notification. As of the beginning of this month, it had been downloaded over 20 million times.

 

Although Instagram is working on Candid Challenges, the feature will not be available to all users in the near future. Apps routinely test features that are never made available to the general public.

Users will be able to use Instagram’s Dual feature, similar to BeReal, to take a picture with both their phone’s front and back cameras at the same time. Instagram first introduced Dual in mid-July, around the same time it announced that all new video posts under 15 minutes would be shared as Reels, its TikTok clone. The company is pushing Reels in an apparent attempt to turn Instagram’s main feed into TikTok, and it now wants Stories to mimic BeReal.

 

 

Paluzzi told Gizmodo via Twitter direct messages that Instagram’s decision to copy BeReal was “quite predictable,” given that the platform had already done so with other features. Candid Challenges would live in Instagram Stories, which is not an original feature. Meta acknowledges that the company stole the idea from Snapchat. However, the leaker stated that he did not expect Instagram to copy BeReal so quickly. If Candid Challenges on Instagram is ever released, he believes it will be a hit.

 

“A similar feature integrated into Instagram could be just as successful,” he told Gizmodo. “Those who currently use both apps may find it more convenient to have fun on one platform.” “And I bet that even those who are now criticising this feature will eventually use it.”

 

In my opinion, shameless desperation is not cool, and Instagram’s actions appear to be that. Instagram and its parent company, Meta, are clearly shaken by the competition from newer players like TikTok and BeReal. However, instead of pushing the boundaries and trying something new, it appears that it simply wants to transform the app into something else—again.