App lets authors tell their story through interactive text messaging

Mixing AI with creative writing, Massively is an interactive storytelling platform that gets readers to text with the characters.

Artificial intelligence is becoming ever smarter and the technology is already being used in some industries to mimic human customer service agents. We've even seen Ask Amy, which lets teens get information about politics by texting — naturally — with a friendly AI bot. Now mixing AI with creative writing, Massively is an interactive storytelling platform that gets readers to text with the characters.

For a certain generation, instant messaging is as natural as having a spoken conversation, but existing storytelling forms have often struggled with how to render text chats in novels or film. With Massively, text chats become the form itself. Readers can browse stories with the app, and after they've found one a conversation begins with the main character.

Readers can respond in much the same way they would a text message, and the characters react to their message while pushing the narrative forwards. A demo of the service shows that the AI actually has some way to go, but one of the interesting things about the platform is that it's encouraging a community of writers to get involved to make their own IM stories.

Authors can write a script for their story and automatically select certain responses based on typical reader inputs. At the moment, the technology can distinguish between questions, gibberish responses and yes/no replies, among other language features.

Watch the video below to learn more about Massively:

While the startup is still in its early stages, the concept could appeal to both writers looking to work in a new medium, or established authors that want a mobile add-on for their existing book. Are there other ways to tell interactive stories via mobile?