How to build your own custom BeReal. with IFTTT

BeReal is a new social media app that’s designed to help you get more intimate (real) life updates from your friends. Everyone on the app is notified simultaneously to share and capture a photo within 2-minutes. There are no filters or image correction. When you take the photo it captures your face along with the scene in front of who. The result are two pictures combined to tell the story of whatever you're doing.

It allows you to capture spontaneous daily moments of your life and share them with your friends! Our teammate, Daniel Hart, wanted to play around with the IFTTT platform and designed a series of Applets that, when paired, mimic BeReal. Below we’ll teach you how to do it on your own!

1. Create a delayed event Applet that creates a Webhook
2. Call on that webhook whenever it fires to send yourself a notification to take a picture
3. Go the extra step for whenever you take a photo and set it in a specific file, send it automatically to someone special.

Code:

let random = Math.floor(Math.random() * 960 );

MakerWebhooks.makeWebRequest.setUrl(`https://lab.grapeot.me/ifttt/delay?event=Event Name&t=${random}&key=Webhooks Key’);

Create a delayed event Applet That creates a Webhook

The unique quality of BeReal is the spontaneity of the event. It could happen anytime when you’re doing anything! You can do the same thing with IFTTT by creating a delayed action. Learn more about how to create a delayed action in our help article here.

Applet #1

1. Create an Applet using the Date & Time Applet. 1a. Add a filter that chooses a random time from 6:00 AM-10:00 PM
2. Trigger a Make a Web Request event

Create a web request Applet that listens for the Webhook (at a random time) and notifies you

The next step is to be notified when to take your photo. Create a second Applet that listens for whenever the first Applet runs.

Applet #2

1. Create a “Receives A Web Request” Trigger
2. Notify Yourself With Custom Message

Share your picture with someone special!

One thing our custom BeReal app is missing is the social aspect. To finish it we need to share our photos with someone special. I thought long and hard about who in my life would love to receive a picture from me every day and realized it was my mom! So I set my notification to remind me to send the photo to my mom. You can automate this process as well! Whenever you take a picture and save it into a specific folder, it will automatically share that image with whomever you want.

Applet #3

1. Create An Applet that looks for photos added to a specific file in your google drive
2. Then sends a message to your chosen recipient with a link to that file.

You will need to share that folder with your recipient for this to work properly.