It Looks Like TikTok's BeReal Competitor Is Dead

Social media, as a business, has often been focused on chasing trends. Whenever a new network on the block sets the App Store alight with a bright idea, every other platform takes a swing at the same concept (or something similar) in order to keep their users from moving on to something new. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. 

The latest swing-and-a-miss comes from TikTok, the platform that other video platforms have ironically been trying to ape for several years — specifically in TikTok's stance against burgeoning platform BeReal.

According to a report from The Verge, TikTok moved today to discontinue its TikTok Now service — a new type of video that was launched back in September of 2022 to compete with the App Store's darling app of that year, BeReal. Much like BeReal's videos, which randomly ping users to film themselves with their front cameras to capture their most authentic selves, TikTok Now encouraged users to film themselves however they were at least once a day.

Several TikTok users posted a notification that they received from the app on Twitter, announcing the end of TikTok Now in no uncertain terms.

"We're updating the TikTok experience and discontinuing TikTok Now," the notification reads, adding instructions for users who want to check their old TikTok Now posts. "We encourage you to continue sharing your creativity on TikTok through captivating videos, photos, and stories. Thank you for being part of our community!"

TikTok Now is being discontinued. pic.twitter.com/EtyWa6PHNz

— Jonah Manzano (@jonah_manzano) June 27, 2023

TikTok has not made any public statements on the reasoning for the discontinuation of TikTok Now, but based on the statistics of BeReal users, it's possible that the novelty of the concept has simply run its course. According to a New York Times report released in April, BeReal saw a 63% drop in its user base from October 2022 to March 2023, dropping from 15 million to approximately 6 million as of April 2023. 

The app has also seen generally less word of mouth on platforms like Twitter since its initial explosive release. BeReal, for its part, claimed these statistics to be inaccurate and that it has over 20 million active users, though it did not provide any official statistics of its own to substantiate this claim.

As for TikTok, it's business as usual. At the time of writing, the company's support page for TikTok Now has not been updated to reflect the feature's discontinuation, but rather is giving back a 404 error instead of an official notice of discontinuation.