Apps of the week:

Whether it’s by iMessage, WhatsApp, Snapchat , or Facebook’s Messenger or Instagram, we collectively send billions of text messages daily. This fast-paced method of communication has become so ingrained that other apps have borrowed the chat format for different purposes.

Take a look at Hooked. The app takes the idea of epistolary storytelling into the 21st century by delivering a story to readers in tiny chunks that emulate a textmessage-based conversation.

All someone has to do is click “next ,” and speech bubbles purportedly from each of the characters in the story appear on screen and scroll upward as in a real chat.

This app feels unsettling to use at first. But after a while, Hooked becomes fun, and the stories are compelling, particularly the horror-based ones.

There’s something satisfyingly voyeuristic about reading someone else’s texts, even though they are fictional.

Hooked has a home page that tempts you to read different stories based on title and a thumbnail image. You can also search by category, like “top picks” or “sci-fi,” or type in a keyword. If you set up a free profile inside the app and feel creative, you can compose and share stories of your own.

The interface is fairly easy to use, though sometimes it can be confusing. While you can download the app and read stories free on iOS and Android, there are time limits, so you can read only parts of a chat story — then you must wait awhile to read more.

It costs $3 a month and as much as $40 annually to get access to all the features to read when you like and to submit your own pieces.

Amazon has an app similar to Hooked called Rapids. The difference is that while Hooked has content of all types, Rapids is a chat-based story app aimed squarely at a younger audience.

With children ages 7 to 12 years old in mind, the story lines cover simple themes and are edited to be amusing. A glossary allows children to look up the definitions of unfamiliar words.

The interface is easy to use, the graphics are cartoonlike and each character has a cheerful cartoon avatar to help identify which person is relating which parts of the story.

You can opt to have the story read aloud, which is great for bedtimes.

Yet the idea of telling stories to youngsters in thi s ultrashort st yle seemed a bit much to me, particularly if you feel that children are already too distracted by the attractions of the internet.

And while Rapids is free to download on iOS and Android and there is a short free trial, it costs $3 a month to get all the content.

In many ways, episodic messaging in story apps is not new.

The format was a big feature of a news app called Circa, which was briefly popular a few years ago.