PSA: BeReal Shares Your Exact Location Every Time You Post
Here's how to turn off the setting.
As Instagram continues to serve up suggested content and sponsored posts, more social media users are turning to BeReal to interact with their close friends online.
The app, dubbed the “anti-Instagram”, has quickly grown in popularity, soaring to the top of the App Store charts with over 20 million downloads and counting. Despite being launched back in January 2020, the app has only gained mainstream attention in recent weeks, perhaps as more users grow sick of traditional social media platforms like Instagram.
But the new, ultra-authentic social media platform isn’t without its own problems — namely: privacy. It’s no secret that the app shares your location when you post your daily Realness. However, some users may be shocked to find out just how precise this location data actually is.
If you have your location services enabled in-app, it will give coordinates of your location with a precision of one metre or less.
#bereal gives the coordinates of users with 5 decimal places meaning you can locate them with a precision of 1 metre or less pic.twitter.com/cdxvmce6Rl
— Cam (@fakeCamReeves) July 27, 2022
Considering the app asks you to post a photo of exactly what you’re doing at a given time, the addition of your specific location boasts obvious safety and security risks — especially if you’re adding people outside of your close friends circle.
BeReal also has a map feature — not unlike Snapchat’s SnapMap — which will put all of your friends locations in one place. While this adds to the intimacy of the app, it may not be so helpful if you don’t want your friends to know who you’re spending time with.
But thankfully, there is an option to disable the app’s location feature.
How To Disable Your Location On BeReal
Disabling your location on BeReal is actually really simple, but could save you from having your precise location coordinates shared with people you’d rather not know your whereabouts.
To disable your location, click the location icon (in the bottom part of the screen when you’re posting your BeReal) and select “turn location off.”
And there you have it! Your location is off! It is really that simple.