Meta is once again taking on its competitors by developing a feature that borrows ideas from others—in this case, BeReal and Snapchat. The company is developing a feature for Instagram called “Peek” that will allow users to post authentic photos that can only be viewed once. While Snapchat popularized the idea of ephemeral content on social media, BeReal led the trend of posting authentic, unedited content. Meta, which has been known to copy startups and other tech companies, seems to be doing it once again with the new feature.
The social media company confirmed to TechCrunch on Friday that the feature, which was first spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Palucciit is an internal prototype and is not tested externally.
Peek appears to be a more ephemeral version of Stories, which can be viewed for 24 hours. A photo you share via a Peek will need to be taken with your camera at this time, as you won’t be able to upload an image from your camera roll, according to a screenshot shared by Paluzzi. Additionally, you wouldn’t be able to edit the photo or add a filter, an idea that became popular with the rise of BeReal.
Peek seems to be somewhat similar to that of Instagram Candid Stories feature, which began testing in 2022 to compete with BeReal. While the feature never rolled out to all users, it was essentially a BeReal clone. The feature would send notifications to people encouraging them to capture what they were doing at that moment and share it without editing the image or adding a filter to it.
While Candid Stories pushed users to share authentic content at a specific time each day, Peek would let you do it on your own terms.
The flexibility could be more appealing to users who are interested in sharing authentic content but don’t want to do so based on a random timer. Instagram’s spin on authentic photo sharing could entice users, especially since then References have suggested that BeReal is losing steam (which they claim is false).
The screenshot Paluzzi posted notes that Instagram sees Peek as a way to “share small moments with the people you love.” Instagram likely hopes the feature will encourage users to share additional types of content on the app, as it needs another competition with BeReal.
As with any internal prototype, it’s unknown when or if Instagram plans to release Peek publicly. Of course, if Instagram rolls out the feature, there’s a chance it will look different or be renamed.
