BeReal

photo sharing · live · since Jan 2020

Once a day, at a random time, everyone gets two minutes to post a photo taken with the front and back cameras at once; friends react with selfies, comments and chat.

how dependent?

  1. 07OperatorFRBeReal SAS
  2. OwnerFRVoodoo SAS
  3. ProtocolFRBeReal SAS
  4. Shared services–None
  5. CodeFRBeReal SAS
  6. VerificationFRPrelude
  7. 06ModelsUSHive
  8. 05Data?BeReal SAS
  9. 04ServersUSGoogle Cloud
  10. EdgeUSFastlyUSGoogleUSCloudflare
  11. 03–01Belowcompute, networks and resources are not recorded per app

Every layer above links to what it rests on. The figure counts the EU, the EEA, Switzerland and the UK as European, as the landscape does.

How it is run

nine questions
ArchitectureWho holds your account and posts?

One company

open protocol: no

move your account and keep your followers: no

hub: Voodoo

BeReal is a closed service: posts and friend lists live only on BeReal's servers, with no federation and no documented public API. The privacy policy offers a GDPR copy of your data, not a move of your account and friends to another provider.

Business modelWho pays, and for what?

Targeted ads · subscriptions

Ads run in the feed and as takeovers, picked using interests and gender that BeReal infers by AI, advertisers' hashed phone-number lists and outside ad networks, with consent where the law requires it. A "No Ads" subscription is sold only in the US. BFM reports about €30m of revenue in 2025, which BeReal's COO tied to advertising (press); no split is published, so putting ads first is our inference.

OrganisationWhat kind of organisation runs it?

Investor-backed company

control: Voodoo SAS (private, Paris), controlled by its co-founder and CEO Alexandre Yazdi; GBL holds 14.8%

BeReal's founders and investors sold it to Voodoo in June 2024 at a €500m valuation, so it has changed hands once and could again. In the French registry Voodoo is president of BeReal SAS, and Voodoo's chain of presidents (Stan Holding, then S1 Holding) ends with Yazdi. In 2020 Voodoo said Yazdi would stay its largest shareholder and keep control with management, as Goldman Sachs (2018) and Tencent (2020) took minority stakes (press); no newer shareholder list is public.

FeedWho decides what you see?

Newest first

The main feed shows friends' posts of the day, and BeReal says it has no algorithm and a set end. No help or legal page states the order, so 'chronological' rests on that claim; BeReal's ad-network head has also spoken of keeping AI out of 'the main algorithm' (press). There are also a Friends of Friends feed and a public (discovery) feed, where BeReal chooses which posts appear; ads run in the feed.

ModerationWho moderates?

The operator

BeReal's own moderation team reviews reports and enforces its Community Standards, with graduated sanctions and a DSA complaint and appeal route. There are no user-run spaces with their own moderators.

AI trainingDoes your content train AI?

Not disclosed

Neither the privacy policy nor the terms mention training AI models on users' content, or licensing it for that. BeReal does run machine learning on photos and profiles to infer interests and gender for ads, which users can refuse under 'Modify my consents'; that is analysis, not training. Posts shared globally come under a broad licence that BeReal can sublicense (terms s.4).

IdentityMust you prove who you are?

No ID needed

verification: Prelude

Read off the verification layer, where its sources are.

Open sourceIs the code open?

Closed source

licence: proprietary

Read off the code layer, where its sources are.

SizeHow big is it?

7.6M a month in the EU

counted: average monthly active recipients in the EU, as the DSA requires them

period: Jan–Jun 2026

BeReal's DSA Art. 24(2) figure, given as approximately 7.6 million, averaged over 1 January to 30 June 2026 (published July 2026). Worldwide, BeReal says it has more than 40 million monthly active users.

What each layer rests on

checked 24 Sep 2026
07OperatorWho serves the app?

BeReal SAS · France

Paris, RCS Paris 881 079 685. Also the controller named in the privacy policy.

07OwnerWho owns the operator, where someone else does?

Voodoo SAS · France

Bought BeReal in June 2024 at a €500m valuation, and is president of BeReal SAS in the French registry. Voodoo is private; GBL (BE) holds 14.99%.

07ProtocolWho writes the rules of the network?

BeReal SAS · France

protocol: proprietary

No federation and no documented public API.

07Shared servicesWhat does it lean on but not run?

None

07CodeWho builds the software?

BeReal SAS · France

licence: proprietary

Built in-house. BeReal's public GitHub organisation holds forks and small libraries, not the app.

07VerificationWho checks users' identity, age or account?

Prelude · France

checks: account

ID needed to post: no

A phone number and an SMS code, sent through Prelude (formerly Ding); the birth date is self-declared. An ID document is asked for only in edge cases, such as recovering an account reported as under 13.

06ModelsWhose models moderate, rank or check?

Hive · United States

Automated classifiers scan every upload, with human review; Hive is BeReal's listed content-moderation provider, and that it runs the classifiers is our inference. AI also infers gender and interests for ad targeting, from an unnamed vendor.

05DataWhere does the data sit?

BeReal SAS · country not established

where: not disclosed

transfers: Yes, outside the EU, under adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses, with no detail per recipient. The named providers include Google Cloud, Cloudflare, Fastly, Stream, Datadog and Amplitude, all US.

04ServersWho runs the servers?

Google Cloud · United States

region: a global load balancer; no region published

BeReal lists Google Cloud as its cloud provider, with Devoteam (FR) as a partner. The API hosts come from third-party open-source clients and still resolve.

  • BeReal help centre, Service Providersread 24 Sep 2026
  • measured · mobile-l7.bereal.com · AS396982 Google · 24 Sep 2026 · the mobile API
  • measured · auth-l7.bereal.com · AS396982 Google · 24 Sep 2026 · sign-in
04EdgeWho stands in front of them?

Fastly · United States

also Google · United States: edge cache for EU-labelled media

also Cloudflare · United States: short links and public profile pages

Photos go out through Fastly and Google's edge cache; short links and profile pages through Cloudflare. BeReal lists Fastly and Cloudflare as its CDNs.

  • BeReal help centre, Service Providersread 24 Sep 2026
  • measured · cdn-us1.bereal.network · AS54113 Fastly · 24 Sep 2026
  • measured · cdn-mc-eu1-fd5f74b2.bereal.network · AS396982 Google · 24 Sep 2026 · Google-Edge-Cache
  • measured · bere.al · AS13335 Cloudflare · 24 Sep 2026

Checked 24 Sep 2026.