BeReal was the most talked-about platform of 2022. For some people it also gave them a taste of viral fame.

• The photosharing app BeReal became a huge viral craze in 2022.

• Many BeReal users have gone viral after sharing their posts on other social media platforms.

• Here are some of the most shocking moments that those users captured on BeReal this year.

BeReal is one of the biggest viral crazes that marked 2022.

2022 was the year of BeReal.

The photo-sharing app, which promotes authenticity and being in the moment, has had people hooked ever since it blew up earlier this year. 

First launched in 2020, BeReal blew up earlier this year. By August, it had more than 10 million active daily users, according to a company job board, as reported by technology publication The Information. It went on to win the Apple award for Best iPhone App of the Year in November.

According to the app's description on Apple's  App Store, BeReal encourages people to "show your friends who you really are, for once," by removing filters and opportunities to stage, over-think, or edit photos.

The app works by notifying users at a random point throughout the day that it's "time to Be Real." A two-minute timer starts when the user opens the app, giving them a limited amount of time to take a picture using both their front and back camera to show themselves, as well as whatever they're doing at that moment.

As the app has grown in popularity over this year, it's become increasingly common for people to take their phones out in public spaces to take their BeReal posts. The unpredictability of BeReal, with users not knowing exactly when the notification is going to come, has meant that many users have gone viral this year for circulating screenshots of the most shocking memories they managed to capture on the app.

Here is a roundup of some of the most viral and shocking BeReals of the year, from users meeting celebrities to documenting significant and personal life events.

A woman from Utah said she posted a BeReal in the operating room moments before getting cosmetic surgery.

Mada Graviet, a 24-year-old woman from Salt Lake City, Utah, is a lifestyle influencer with 507,000 TikTok followers.

Graviet explained to her followers in September that she was planning to get a breast lift surgery, but she told Insider that on the day of the procedure, just moments before she was about to go under anesthesia for the surgery, her BeReal notification went off.

"I asked if I could bring my phone into the OR and take it in there right before I went under. So my doctor and anesthesiologist were down to take the pic with me! Then I just gave my phone to a nurse and went under for surgery," she said.

Graviet posted a screenshot of her BeReal on TikTok shortly afterward, and it received 2.3 million views. People said they thought the picture was "iconic" and "comedy gold," while also saying they hoped the influencer's surgery went well.

"I didn't anticipate it would blow up as much as it did but I definitely thought some people would get a kick out of it, so I was happy it did well! The best part was telling my doctors that the video blew up. They felt so cool," Graviet told Insider.

A woman from Sweden went viral on TikTok after posting BeReal posts of not one, not two, but five Harry Styles concerts.

Galadriel Blomljus Enhager, a 20-year-old woman from Sweden, found viral TikTok fame for posting a series of videos showing off her experience standing close to the stage at multiple Harry Styles concerts during the singer's "Love on Tour" campaign earlier this year.

Enhager told Insider that she'd been saving up for years to see Styles live in concert, and traveled across Europe to see him perform in Prague, Madrid, Berlin, Turin, and Vienna.

In addition to posting clips of Styles performing at the concerts on TikTok, Enhager posted a photo-montage of several BeReal posts that she said she took during the events, leading many people to comment on how excited and envious they were about the images.

"BEST BE REAL EVER" and "Ain't no way 😭 my dream," commenters wrote.

Enhager told Insider that she did not expect so many people to take notice of her BeReal posts on TikTok, but said that going viral for the post was an "added bonus" to the experience of seeing Styles perform. 

"It's always been a dream of mine to be able to go to so many shows! Capturing it through BeReal was a bonus and it feels crazy because the whole concept of BeReal obviously is being real about your life. To think that my childhood dream is my reality now is an insane feeling and I'm glad I could capture and save it all through the app," she said.

A 16-year-old BeReal user met Steve Irwin's son and convinced him to be in her BeReal.

In November, 16-year-old Georgia Smith visited Australia Zoo, which is run by the family of Steve Irwin, a TV personality who was known for wrestling with reptiles on his show "The Crocodile Hunter," and who died in 2006 while filming with a stingray.

As she was walking around, Smith came across Robert Irwin, Steve's 19-year-old son who is hugely famous on TikTok, with 4.6 million followers, and who made headlines around the world this year when he went viral for appearing in another zoo visitor's TikTok video when she asked him for his phone number.

Smith managed to get a selfie with Irwin for her BeReal post, which she then reshared on TikTok, going viral and receiving 2.3 million views, as fans of Irwin said they were "jealous" of her picture.

Smith told Insider that she had actually already taken a BeReal post that day, but was so excited about meeting Irwin that she wanted to retake her post. (Users of the app are only supposed to post once a day, but the app allows them to delete the picture and retake it once a day.)

"It's a once in a lifetime thing, so I was like, I'll BeFake," she told Insider.

According to Smith, Irwin did not appear to know what BeReal was, as he had a confused expression on his face when she asked him to be in her post. He agreed to be in the picture, however, and Smith said the positive comments she ended up receiving on TikTok from people "were super nice," even though it was a shock to find out that so many people saw her post after she went viral.

A Brazillian man captured two dogs in an intimate moment on BeReal, to the amusement of users all over Twitter.

José Portugal, who is from Brazil, went viral in November for sharing his BeReal on Twitter, showing one dog mounting another.

He told Insider he captured the post while studying at his grandmother's house.

"There's a lot of dogs at granny's usually. But these ones were just... you know," he told Insider. When his BeReal notification went off at that exact moment, he rushed to try and take the picture in time.

Portugal, 19, said he initially shared the post with his Twitter circle, a group of close friends who he enabled to see the post, but that those friends convinced him to make the post public, as they thought other people would find it funny.

Afterward, it was reposted by a now-deleted viral Twitter page, which meant that Portugal ended up receiving lots of messages and notifications from people about the fact that his post went viral, he said.

"I am yet to show granny the picture," he told Insider.

One TikToker broke the internet when she saw King Charles III and snapped him on BeReal.

"POV BeReal goes off just as you're just trying to have a normal day out in London," read an on-screen caption on Josie Cunnington's TikTok post from September 10.

The video, taken outside of Buckingham Palace two days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, showed crowds of people shaking hands with King Charles III, Britain's new monarch.

Cunnington shared a screenshot of her BeReal post — a selfie of herself in the crowd while the King stood on the other side of the camera — gaining 2.1 million views and thousands of shocked comments.

"King Charles, doing BeReal?!?!" said one commenter.

"The King of BeReal and the King of the United Kingdom," wrote another.

Josie Cunnington did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

BeReal went off at the same moment one TikToker found a snake in her house, according to her viral video.

On October 16, a TikTok user named @4thelols shared a screenshot of her BeReal, which appeared to show a snake crawling across her floor.

"When BeReal goes off during the scariest moment of my life," an on-screen caption on the post read, while a secondary caption said, "I woke up from my hangover nap very suddenly."

Many commenters who responded to the video — which received 1.2 million views — said they thought the user must have been based in Australia, which is known for its dangerous snakes.

"My first thought: 'she's Aussie for sure,'" wrote one commenter.

"Sometimes I think I wanna live in Australia but then..." said another commenter, to which the creator responded, "Nah it's actually great down here."

@4hthelols did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

A Florida TikToker took a BeReal in mid-air during a skydiving excursion.

Travel and lifestyle content creator Kiara Vernon, 20, received 10.3 million views in September when she posted a screen recording of the moment she took a BeReal post seconds after jumping out of a plane on TikTok.

The content creator, who is based in Florida, has previously posted clips of various skydiving attempts, but this viral screen recording is her most-viewed post to date, as many commenters said they were impressed that she was able to take the picture on her phone in mid-air.

"I'm STUNNED the app actually worked in time," and "I just know I'd drop my phone falling like 120mph," commenters said.

Vernon told Insider she strapped her phone to her hand with a hair tie, and was pleased to have gotten the shot without dropping her phone. "The feeling of taking the BeReal mid-air was amazing," she said, adding, "The mixture of wanting to get a good picture and the fear of dropping my phone had my heart racing with pure adrenaline."

"The speed with which I shoved my phone in my pants after this photo is unheard of," the caption under her TikTok post read.

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.

Read the original article on Insider