Snapchat Adds BeReal-Like Dual Camera Feature

Snapchat is getting real. Or, it’s at least taking a cue from fellow social media company BeReal with its new dual camera feature.

Announced today, Snap unveiled the dual camera setting, which can be used in Snaps, Stories, and Spotlight videos. The feature also lets you control how the double image appears, unlike BeReal, by choosing between a horizontal or vertical split, a circular picture-in-picture, or a cutout overlay.

The new setting is available now for iOS, but Android users will have to have to wait for the feature to arrive in “the coming months.”

With this, parent company Snap has solidified itself as an aging social media app. While it was once the one getting copied when the much-bigger and then-Facebook-now-Meta-owned Instagram replicated its “Stories” feature, Snap is now looking to newer social media platforms like BeReal for inspiration.

It should be noted that this isn’t a complete knockoff. Yes, the dual camera is eerily reminiscent of that used in BeReal, but the core usage has been translated to fit Snapchat. Snap isn’t suddenly sending out notifications to post at a specific time, which is arguably the more critical difference that separates BeReal from its counterparts.

Still, Snapchat’s loss of favor among the young has been documented since Kylie Jenner sent its stock plummeting with a single tweet back in 2018. The app also waded into the TikTok competition by starting “Spotlight.” Spotlight highlights user-created videos (like, say, those on TikTok) that could be up to 60 seconds long. Snap also said it would offer a $1 million daily prize pool split among the most popular videos. The more popular the video, the more of that total prize pool users can earn. Also not unlike TikTok’s Creator Fund, which had launched just a few months prior.

Snap is still trying, though. The app’s number of daily active users has grown since that misstep. And along with the dual camera announcement, the company encouraged its use by reminding users of said reward program.

“On Snapchat, our community is rewarded for their creativity,” the blog post reads. “Snap has a reward program for Spotlight creators in which it makes available millions of dollars to eligible Snapchatters who create the top Spotlight Snaps. Share what you make with Dual Camera on Spotlight, or if inspiration strikes quickly, create a Snap to send to your friends or post to your Story.”

So, Snapchatters, keep it real.