Is BeReal. safe to use?

BeReal. integrates 53 third-party SDKs spanning advertising, infrastructure, and support. Its App Store privacy label declares cross-app tracking via User Content, Identifiers, and Usage Data. It collects data linked to your identity including Location, Contact Info, Contacts, and User Content and 3 more categories. It includes 12 advertising or attribution SDKs. Whether this is acceptable depends on your personal privacy preferences.

What permissions does BeReal. need?

BeReal. requests 9 iOS permissions: App Tracking Transparency, Camera, Microphone, Contacts, Photo Library, Location (When In Use), Save to Photo Library, Local Network, and Apple Music.

What data does BeReal. collect?

According to its App Store privacy label, BeReal. declares cross-app tracking via User Content, Identifiers, and Usage Data. It collects data linked to your identity including Location, Contact Info, Contacts, User Content, Identifiers, Usage Data, and Diagnostics.

How many SDKs does BeReal. have?

BeReal. integrates 53 third-party SDKs. 11 for advertising, 1 for attribution, 3 for analytics, 6 for customer support, 3 for social integration, 7 for infrastructure, and 18 for other.

Does BeReal. use Google SDKs?

Yes. BeReal. includes 15 Google or Firebase SDKs: Google Ads Conversion, Google AdMob, Firebase Core, Google Data Transport, Firebase Core Extension, Firebase Core Internal, Firebase Installations, BRFirebaseAuth, BRFirebaseCore, BRFirebaseCrashlytics, BRFirebaseInstallations, BRFirebaseMessaging, BRGoogleAdsOnDeviceConversion, Firebase, and GoogleUtilities-NSData. These are primarily used for advertising.

Does BeReal. use App Tracking Transparency?

Yes. BeReal. requests the App Tracking Transparency permission, which means it asks for your consent to track your activity across other companies' apps and websites.

Does BeReal. access your location?

Yes. BeReal. requests location access. The developer states: "The location of your BeReal will only be shared with your friends if they share theirs with you. When shared publicly, only an approximate location is visible.".

Does BeReal. access your camera or microphone?

BeReal. requests access to both your camera and microphone. The developer says camera access is for "BeReal uses the camera to capture and share a picture with your friends". Microphone access is for "BeReal uses the microphone to capture and share with your friends". These permissions are only active when you grant them in iOS Settings.

Does BeReal. access your contacts?

Yes. BeReal. requests access to your contacts. The developer states: "BeReal will check your contacts to see who from your friends is already on BeReal. Your contacts won't be stored or shared with anyone.".

Does BeReal. run in the background?

Yes. BeReal. registers 5 background modes, which means it can perform certain tasks when you're not actively using it.

What are some alternatives to BeReal.?

Other social networking apps include Yik Yak , 3F , AM , Backbone , BiP , and BLK . Each app takes a different approach to social networking and varies in its data collection and SDK usage.

Social Networking · Privacy report

BeReal: Photos & Friends Daily

Free · ★4.8 · BeReal

Is BeReal. safe?

It leans heavily on third-party trackers.

Our take. BeReal. is built with more third-party tracking code than 86% of the social networking we have scanned, including an analytics SDK from India.

Privacy footprint · vs 97 social networkingHeavy

Trackers from other companies15 · a lot

typical social networking: 4

Data the app links to you7 types · some

typical social networking: 5 · from its own privacy label

What it collects about you

BeReal. links 7 categories of your data to you.

From the developer's own App Store privacy label. These are the kinds of data BeReal. ties to your identity, and it also declares it shares data to track you across other apps.

LocationContact InfoContactsUser ContentIdentifiersUsage DataDiagnostics

Who else is inside

It carries trackers from 8 companies.

Third-party SDKs found in the app, matched to the company that publishes each. Present in the code; we do not observe what they transmit.

🏢Other third partiesadvertising

A third-party SDK.

SDKs

🇺🇸GoogleAnalytics

Firebase, AdMob and Google analytics SDKs, built to record how you use the app and serve ads.

SDKs

🇺🇸AppLovinAdvertising

A mobile advertising and monetization network.

SDK

🇮🇳InMobiAdvertising · India

A mobile advertising network.

SDK

🇺🇸UnityAdvertising

In app advertising from Unity.

SDK

🇺🇸LiftoffAdvertising

In app video advertising network.

SDK

🇩🇪AdjustAttribution · Germany

Marketing attribution, built to tie installs and in app events back to ad campaigns.

SDK

🇺🇸AmplitudeAnalytics

Product analytics, built to record detailed behaviour inside the app.

SDK

How it compares

Where it sits among social networking.

Every one of these apps we have scanned, on the two measures above: third-party trackers it carries (across) and data it links to you on its own label (up). Toward the top right is more invasive.

Each dot is one social networking app. BeReal. sits to the right, carrying more third-party tracking than most.

Other signals

Two more flags.

Each is a fact read straight from the app. The same checks run on every app we scan. Only the ones that apply here are shown.

It declares cross-app tracking

Its own App Store label says it tracks you across other companies apps and websites using your advertising identifier.

It sends analytics to a company in India

InMobi is a India company. Its analytics SDK is built into the app.

The evidence

What it's built from.

All 53 SDKs in the app, grouped by what they are for. 15 are third-party trackers.

11advertising

1attribution

3analytics

38standard libraries

15 of the 53 are third-party trackers. The rest are the app's own code and standard open-source building blocks.

Show the full SDK list

Other third partiesadvertising

AppHarbr Ad Quality · Google Ads Conversion · Moloco Ads · Open Measurement (PubMatic) · OpenWrap (PubMatic) · Google UMP (Consent)

GoogleAnalytics · USA

Google AdMob · Firebase Core · Google Data Transport

AppLovinAdvertising · USA

AppLovin

InMobiAdvertising · India

InMobi

UnityAdvertising · USA

Unity Ads

LiftoffAdvertising · USA

Vungle Ads

AdjustAttribution · Germany

Adjust Signature

AmplitudeAnalytics · USA

Amplitude

Standard libraries38 · on-device

The app's own code plus open-source interface, storage and networking libraries.

How we know this

Counterspy downloads the app from the App Store and statically analyzes its compiled binary. Embedded SDKs are matched against a signature database and resolved to the company that operates each. We also read the developer's App Store privacy label, which lists the data the app says it collects and links to you. We do not run the app or intercept its traffic, so we report capabilities present in the code and the developer's own disclosures, not proven transmission. We assess privacy and data collection, not malware, security flaws, or developer intent. Reports are automated and never edited for payment. Scan v4.68.2, 2026-04-03.

Third-party trackers are advertising, analytics and attribution SDKs detected by static signature matching. Presence shows a capability is compiled in, not that it ran or transmitted data.
"Data the app links to you" is the count of data categories the developer declares as Data Linked To You in its App Store privacy label. Labels are self-reported and not verified by Apple.
Comparison across the 97 social networking in our corpus. Trackers: median 4. Data linked to you: median 5.