Traditional literature isn’t the only way to tell stories through text, you know. The recent success of the suspense stories narrated over Twitter by Manuel Bartual makes clear that other media can be terrific for story-telling over the keyboard. Today we’ve put together a list of a few free Android apps that tell stories in chat format, an interesting way to take advantage of the smartphone interface in a way you initially might not expect.

app android historias manuel bartual featured Apps for reading Manuel Bartual-style stories

Apps for reading stories through chats have a few things in common: the plots tend to involve suspense and horror, they move forward with taps to your screen, and you can enjoy them without spending a ton of time reading. The narration format usually involves dialogue, though that all depends on the story being told. These apps are a bit similar, though there are certain differences that make them unique.

Tap – Chat Stories

Created by the team behind the popular Wattpad, this app takes you through the most disturbing stories that aren’t just narrated through text – they also throw in media that give more dynamism to the story and get you much more involved. It’s got a ton of different stories and an option to pick the theme you’re most interested in. It’s even got an editor to create your own tales, should you fancy giving voice to your inner writer. [Download]

Tap - Chat Stories

Scary Chat Stories

This app focuses on horror stories and does it in the simplest way possible, showing you a chat thread with the dialogue between the characters in each story. It makes up for its rather basic interface with a nice collection of creepypasta stories that refresh every day. An ideal app for fans of scary stories. [Download]

Scary Chat Stories

Hooked

This is one of the most popular apps for telling stories through chats and we highlighted it here on the blog a while ago. In fact it helped spark the proliferation of apps like this, mainly due to one of its great strengths: its lavish simplicity. Inside the smartphone chat stories in Hooked you’ll find a world full of small tales of suspense and intrigue where you’ll be something like voyeurs on what’s going to happen. [Download]

hooked