{{Buzzword|date=December 2025}}{{Short description|Chat fiction mobile application}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2022}} {{Infobox software | name = Hooked | logo = File:Logoforhooked.png | developer = Telepathic Inc. | released = {{Start date and age|2015}} | operating system = iOS, Android | language = | genre = Chat fiction | license = Freemium | website = {{URL|https://hooked.co}} }}
'''Hooked''' is a mobile application where users can write or read chat fiction, short pieces of fiction told in the format of text messages between fictional characters. The app was released in September 2015 and was developed by Telepathic Inc.
==Features== Hooked is a freemium smartphone app that allows users to write or read short stories made up of text messages between characters.<ref name="WIRED 2016">{{cite magazine |first=Clive|last=Thompson| title=The Best New Way to Read? Novels Told Through Text Messages | magazine=WIRED | date=August 18, 2016 | url=https://www.wired.com/2016/08/seeking-new-distribution-method-novelists-take-texting/ | access-date=September 8, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Carson 2016">{{cite web | last=Carson | first=Biz | title=The app that wants to turn bite-sized stories into a YouTube-like empire is turning heads in Silicon Valley | website=Business Insider | date=January 14, 2016 | url=https://www.businessinsider.com/hooked-brings-in-more-money-from-silicon-valley-investors-2016-1 | access-date=September 8, 2020}}</ref> CEO Prerna Gupta described the app as "books for the Snapchat generation" or "Twitter for fiction."<ref name="Garcia 2015">{{cite web | last=Garcia | first=Ahiza | title=New app offers 'books for the Snapchat generation' | website=CNNMoney | date=September 19, 2015 | url=https://money.cnn.com/2015/09/19/technology/hooked-reading-app-prerna-gupta/index.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921081141/http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/19/technology/hooked-reading-app-prerna-gupta/index.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=September 21, 2015 | accessdate=September 8, 2020}}</ref> As of March 2019, the app had more than 40 million active users.<ref name="OZY 2019" />
The stories are written by a mix of professional authors and crowd-sourced participants.<ref name="Faughnder 2016" /> The most popular genres are suspense and horror.<ref name="WIRED 2016" /> The stories usually lack literary elements like character arcs, are simply written and are intended to be suspenseful or addicting.<ref name="Marks 2016" /> Each piece of fiction on the app is approximately 1,000 to 1,300 words long and can be read in about five minutes.<ref name="Garcia 2015" /><ref name="OZY 2019">{{cite web | title=The Hottest Way to Read Short Stories? With Chat Fiction | website=OZY | date=March 21, 2019 | url=https://www.ozy.com/good-sht/the-hottest-way-to-read-short-stories-with-chat-fiction/92923/ | accessdate=September 8, 2020 | first=Zara | last=Stone | archive-date=May 13, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200513221918/https://www.ozy.com/good-sht/the-hottest-way-to-read-short-stories-with-chat-fiction/92923/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> Some longer stories are told in "chapters" and a 32,000-word thriller called Dark Matter was released in 2018.<ref name="OZY 2019" />
The app provides a certain number of text messages for free, then delays the next text message by 15 minutes unless the user pays for a subscription.<ref name="Ha" /><ref name="OZY 2019" /> Prior to 2020, the app offered a three-day free trial and then required users to pay.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Helyer|first=Dan|date=June 8, 2020|title=The 9 Best Chat Stories Apps for Reading Text Message Stories|url=https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/chat-stories-fiction-apps/|access-date=2021-03-12|website=MUO|language=en-US}}</ref> According to Gupta, the app was intended to get the younger generation to read more without getting distracted.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|first=Trisha |last=Thadani |title=Hooked aims to get kids reading — via text message|url=http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Hooked-aims-to-get-kids-reading-via-text-11243683.php|website=San Francisco Chronicle|accessdate=August 28, 2017|date=June 26, 2017 }}</ref> Most users of the app are between 13 and 24 years-old.<ref name="Ha">{{cite web | last=Ha | first=Thu-Huong | title=Hooked book app vs. Kindle and Audible: US teen readers are getting hooked on fiction by text message | website=Quartz | date=December 1, 2016|url=https://qz.com/847350/hooked-book-app-vs-kindle-and-audible-us-teen-readers-are-getting-hooked-on-fiction-by-text-message/ | access-date=September 8, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Marks 2016">{{cite news | last=Marks | first=Gene | title=More than 1.8 million teens are reading books by text messages thanks to this start-up | newspaper=Washington Post | date=December 2, 2016 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-small-business/wp/2016/12/02/more-than-1-8-million-teens-are-reading-books-by-text-messages-thanks-to-this-start-up/ | access-date=September 8, 2020}}</ref>
== History == The Hooked app was first released in September 2015.<ref name="Faughnder 2016">{{cite web | last=Faughnder | first=Ryan | title=Can the Hooked app find the next 'Harry Potter' for Hollywood? | website=Los Angeles Times | date=June 21, 2016 | url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-hollywood-data-20160610-snap-htmlstory.html |accessdate=September 8, 2020}}</ref> Initially, Hooked featured about 200 stories that were written by professional authors selected by the app developers.<ref name="Garcia 2015" /><ref name="Miller 2016">{{cite web | last=Miller | first=Meg | title=How Hooked's Clever UI Turns Teens Into Voracious Readers | website=Fast Company | date=June 3, 2016 | url=https://www.fastcompany.com/3060555/how-hookeds-clever-ui-turns-teens-into-voracious-readers | access-date=September 8, 2020}}</ref> The following year, Telepathic Inc. released Hooked 2.0, which allowed users of the app to create and share their own short stories.<ref name="TechCrunch 2016">{{cite web | title=Chatty fiction app Hooked gets an update where readers can write stories, too | website=TechCrunch | date=April 7, 2016 | first=Anthony|last=Ha|url=https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/07/hooked-2-0/ | access-date=September 8, 2020}}</ref> By mid-2016, the app had 700 stories written by professional authors and 9,000 stories written by users.<ref name="Miller 2016" />
Hooked had 1.8 million downloads by 2016<ref name="Ha" /> and 20 million download as of 2017, which generated $6.5 million in revenue.<ref name="Castillo 2017">{{cite web | last=Castillo | first=Michelle | title=Millions of millennials are reading six-minute horror stories told entirely in the form of text messages | website=CNBC | date=May 21, 2017 | url=https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/21/hooked-app-horror-stories-in-text-messages.html | accessdate=September 8, 2020}}</ref> The response to Hooked prompted others to create similar text-message based short story apps, like Yarn and Tap.<ref name="TechCrunch 2017">{{cite web | title=The chat fiction apps that teens go crazy for |first=Katie|last=Roof| website=TechCrunch | date=June 13, 2017 | url=https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/13/the-chat-fiction-apps-that-teens-go-crazy-for/ | access-date=September 8, 2020}}</ref> <!-- Do you have a source for this, or is it personal speculation? The app did not get popular till later in the year, probably because it was a newer app, and a lot of people did not know about it. Once youtubers started making videos about the hooked app it really got popular because seeing your favorite YouTuber talking about an app you will get curious about it and download it.-->
Sensor Tower reported that the Hooked app received 2.22 million downloads during the period from October 2016 to March 2017.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hot Reading App Hooked Grew 560% in Five Months, Spawning Competitors for its Crown |url=https://sensortower.com/blog/chat-stories-app-growth |access-date=2024-11-05 |website=sensortower.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
Starting in 2020, longer stories divided into chapters debuted on the app.<ref name="TechCrunch 2018">{{cite web | title=Chat fiction startup Hooked unveils 'Dark Matter,' its first feature-length thriller | website=TechCrunch | first=Anthony|last=Ha|date=October 26, 2018 | url=https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/26/hooked-dark-matter/ | access-date=September 8, 2020}}</ref> In March, the company launched Hooked TV, an app to showcase video pilots based on a number of scripts themed around the app's content. Out of 50 pilots, those that were most popular among users of the app and social media were expanded into original series as Hooked TV evolved into a streaming platform in the second half of 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Faughnder |first=Ryan |date=2021-03-23 |title=The Wide Shot: The producer taking TikTok storytelling to Hollywood |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/newsletter/2021-03-23/the-wide-shot-the-app-maker-taking-tiktok-storytelling-to-hollywood-the-wide-shot |access-date=2024-11-05 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Background== The idea for Hooked was conceived when Gupta was working on writing a book of her own.<ref name="WIRED 2016" /><ref name="Garcia 2015" /> Prerna Gupta and her husband Parag Chordia tested short stories with 15,000 people and found that readers were five times more likely to read a story to its end if the story was presented in a text message format.<ref name="WIRED 2016" /><ref name="Marks 2016" /> They created Telepathic Inc., which developed Hooked.<ref name="TechCrunch 2015">{{cite web | first=Anthony|last=Ha|title=Hooked Is An App For Readers Who Think Fiction Should Be More Like Text Messaging | website=TechCrunch | date=September 17, 2015 | url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/17/hooked/ | access-date=September 7, 2020}}</ref>
According to Celebrity Secret when they first started out, the stories were basically as if two people were texting each other and some sort of drama unfolds. Some of their most popular initial stories were actually horror stories, where a mom gets a text from her daughter and something creepy is happening to her. Over time, they started to turn those into podcasts, which then led to making their own movies and TV shows.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-04-22 |title=Prerna Gupta Shares Everything You Need to Know About Her Wildly Popular App 'Hooked' (Exclusive) |url=https://celebsecrets.com/prerna-gupta-shares-everything-you-need-to-know-about-her-wildly-popular-app-hooked-exclusive/ |access-date=2024-11-05 |website=Celeb Secrets |language=en-US}}</ref>
As of 2017, the Telepathic has raised $6 million in funding to develop and support the Hooked app.<ref name="Garcia 2015" /><ref name="Marks 2016" /><ref name="TechCrunch 2015" /><ref name="OZY 2019" /><ref name="SFChronicle.com 2017">{{cite web | title=Hooked aims to get kids reading – via text message | website=SFChronicle.com | date=June 26, 2017 | url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Hooked-aims-to-get-kids-reading-via-text-11243683.php | first=Trisha|last=Thadani| accessdate=September 8, 2020}}</ref> From the main website itself the Hooked investors include Sound Ventures, The Chernin Group, WME/Endeavor, MACRO, Greg Silverman, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Mariah Carey, Jamie Foxx, Joe Montana, Aasif Mandvi, Max Martin, Anjula Acharia, Savan Kotecha, Cyan Banister, Eric Ries, A Capital, SV Angel, Cowboy Ventures, Founders Fund and Greylock, among many others.<ref name=":0" />
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{Official website}}
Category:Cross-platform software Category:Mobile applications Category:Internet properties established in 2015 Category:Software companies established in 2015 Category:Chat websites Category:Entertainment websites