Byline vs TypeStory
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Byline
Collaborate with others to create unique stories, one line at a time. Each participant only sees the previous line, fostering surprising and creative narratives. Share your finished tales with friends or the wider community.
- Collaborative story creation
- Line-by-line writing
- Public story posting
- Private group invitations
- Story titling and sharing
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Byline is a modern take on exquisite corpse. Serendipitous stories come together one line at a time, with each writer only seeing one line before theirs. Create the weirdest, funniest, spookiest, strangest story you can. POST DIRECTLY TO BYLINE Write the first line to your story and post on the site for strangers to finish. INVITE YOUR FRIENDS Write the first line to your story and then send it to a specific group of people you know. Once finished, you decide who can view. Once everyone has written their line, it's your turn to title and share the result in all its glory!
TypeStory
This app helps you craft stories by organizing characters, dialogues, and scenes. Create interactive narratives with music synchronization and customizable character elements. Unlock full potential with a PRO upgrade.
- Character creation and reuse
- Multiple scene types (chat, title, quote)
- Music synchronization for lyric videos
- Interactive story playback
- Character aliases and avatar customization
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TypeStory is a tool for writing stories. Turn your ideas into a story creating characters, dialogues and scene titles. CHARACTERS Add characters and reuse them in different stories. You can also add aliases to make minor changes to your characters, like changing the name or the avatar. SCENES Your story is divided into scenes, there are different scenes you can choose. — Conversation Conversation between characters in the form of a chat — Title A fullscreen view with text and/or picture — Quote A quote/monologue from one particular character MUSIC Sync music with messages to create a lyric video in a chat style INTERACTIVE Your story is interactive, tap on the screen to control the story playback. TypeStory PRO Free version has some limitations: • Limited number of messages and scenes • Watermark applied to stories Unlock all the features of the app with TypeStory PRO (in-app purchase).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Byline at none against TypeStory's 1. Byline also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.5) and review sentiment (86% vs 63%). TypeStory's advantage is ratings volume (3K vs 16) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. TypeStory sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Byline asks for nothing beyond the download.
Byline holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: TypeStory has 3K ratings behind it against 16, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 86% of Byline's written reviews are positive against 63% of TypeStory's.
Byline ships an update every 2 weeks, TypeStory every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Byline | TypeStory |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (16 ratings) — better | 4.5 (3K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 85.7% of reviews — better | 62.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 16 | 3K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | App't | Matteo D'Ignazio |
Customer experience
Byline
TypeStory
Bugs and requests
Byline
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
TypeStory
Reported bugs
2 issues- Crashes when switching between scenes
- Deleted stories cannot be recovered
Requested features
4 requests- Add video support
- Increase free message and project limits
- Implement multiple language options
- Allow customization of chat bubble colors
In-app purchases
Byline
No in-app purchases
TypeStory
- TypeStory PRO$2.99
Questions
Is Byline free?
Is TypeStory free?
Which has better reviews, Byline or TypeStory?
Do Byline or TypeStory have ads?
Which is updated more often, Byline or TypeStory?
Other comparisons
