A BeReal alternative just went from 30K to 90K downloads in 30 days.
Buddies is an app built for friend groups, launched during quarantine. Friends can send photos and videos, but nobody can see anything right away, only the next day.
They run an English and French playbook that has made close to 40M views.
Their first good find happened in French, with street-style app presentations and the same hook every time: “The reverse BeReal”.
“Le BeReal inversé” hit 2.4M views (March 14, 2025).
However, the real explosion that tripled their downloads in the last 30 days was a small but efficient primarily english-speaking UGC wave.
Around early February 2026, Buddies decided to start a small ambassador campaign made up of 5 creators.
They started going viral after days. And all they had to do was cut fruit.
@maybelleirl hit 3.8M views & 60K bookmarks on TikTok by cutting a mango and presenting the app as a better alternative to Snapchat “do not open” group chats.
A few days later, @faaizslife hit 3.1M views on Instagram with pretty much the same script.
Their strategy always comes down to mainstream app comparisons.
At first, they grew their French audience as “the reverse BeReal”.
Now, they are growing an international audience by comparing themselves to the Snapchat “do not open” group chats.
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