Beer Buddy, an app that allows users to track and share their alcoholic beverages with friends, has an interface reminiscent of a COVID-era app that connected its users during a time of complete isolation. As wellness and health routines and culture become more rigid, drinking culture seems to be on the steady decline. How does Beer Buddy fit into the intersection of these divulging trends?

How it Works

Beer Buddy functions similarly to the COVID-era phenomenon BeReal, as users can capture and share a front and back facing photo with their mutual connections, creating a sort of feed out of their friends posts. Unlike BeReal, users can take and share pictures at any given time and multiple posts can be made each day. The only caveat is that the user is sharing themselves having a drink, whether that be a mixed drink, beer, wine, etcetera. Before posting a Beer Buddy to one’s page, users are asked to log the type of drink they are sipping while having the opportunity to get specific, mentioning brands or exact cocktails. Essentially, Beer Buddy acts as an interactive, community beverage tracker, and its features make engagement fun and communal. 

The Interface

Beer Buddy’s interface features several key components that make the app both immersive and engaging. Once a user has made a post, it appears on each of their mutuals feed’s. Mutuals then have the option to interact with the post, sending likes, commenting with captions or photo reactions, and sending the user a “cheers”, a digital clinking of the glasses if you will. Users also have the option to look at each of their friends profiles and see backlogged posts. The app ranks users amongst their mutuals in regards to number of drinks logged and also keeps track of the total number of drinks each user has logged during their Beer Buddy career. Posts are tagged with locations, which correspond to a larger map where drinking spots are marked and number of collective posts in each location are tallied. The map appears similarly to the Snapchat or Find My Friends map, and is a fun way to visualize how far and wide our drinks have taken us. 

One of Beer Buddy’s most surprising features is its ability to log dry days, or days that you haven’t drank. Granted, this is strictly based on whether you logged a drink that day. Regardless, Beer Buddy uses logging frequency to measure dry days and drinking days, breaking this data down my month, week, and all time. There is also the ability to monitor one’s drinking awareness, comparing days alcohol was consumed to those of your mutuals. This feature doesn’t necessarily provide data or information regarding healthy drinking habits, but it does include a message at the top of the page that reads, “Do not drink alcohol. Alcohol harms body and mind – skip it!” This message seems rather counterintuitive to the app itself, since without alcohol consumption, the Beer in Beer Buddy would become obsolete. So what is it that Beer Buddy is trying to get at? 

Is its goal to expand and diversify alcohol’s social component or to discourage alcohol consumption altogether? From its interactive features to its mindful data tracking, I imagine Beer Buddy aims to create a safe online space for users to share their occasional night out, porch beer, or craft cocktail, while holding drinkers accountable via their built in tracking features, but more importantly, by users own personal community.

What do you think of Beer Buddy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!