01
One number starts it
Strands lives inside a phone number. No app. No signup wall. Just a text thread people can pass from person to person.
Strands Media
Stories that survive only if someone new keeps texting.
Strands is a community storytelling experience delivered entirely over SMS. A story starts, anyone can text the next line, and the clock resets only when a new contributor joins in.
What Strands is
Part social experiment, part publishing format, part chain letter for fiction. The viral mechanic and the survival mechanic are the same thing.
How It Works
A tiny ruleset with real narrative pressure.
02
Every line costs your turn
The mechanic is simple on purpose: once you contribute, you cannot add another line to that episode. Survival depends on somebody new.
03
Virality is the story engine
To keep the narrative alive, you have to hand the number to someone who has not written yet. Sharing is not marketing around the product. It is the product.
Rules
The loop
- A story begins as a single text.
- Anyone can send the next line, but only once per episode.
- If 24 hours pass without a brand-new contributor, the strand dies.
- When the episode closes, every contributor gets the full story.
Why It Matters
Storytelling built for passing along.
- Built for collaborative fiction, social play, and live experiments.
- Made to feel intimate, lightweight, and a little urgent.
- Designed so the audience becomes the authoring system.
Status
The MVP is in motion.
Infrastructure is live, the SMS engine is built, and the first public strand is next. Strands will launch on strands.media.