AU Story Ideas for Chat Stories: Five Setups and What Each One Gives You
Five AU story ideas for chat stories, from a wrong number to a coffee shop, and what each one gives you: who texts whom, when and why.
AU story ideas are setups that move characters readers already know into a new world, such as a school, an office or a coffee shop. For a chat story, a good setup also gives the characters a reason to text.
“It started off with Lily's mistake of texting Ivor's number,” Interaksyon wrote in July 2019 about “By Mistake”, a Kathniel Twitter serye by Gwy Saludes. One wrong number gave the story its first message, its first question and a reason for two strangers to keep talking.
That is what to look for in AU story ideas for a chat story. A setting alone is not enough, because the setup also has to answer who texts whom, when, and why. Here are five setups that answer all three, with what each one gives you.
Wrong number
Two strangers and one mistaken message. The first text is already written for you, an apology or a confused “sino ’to?”, and the reply decides the genre.
Who texts whom: only the two of them at first, since they share no friends. When: late at night, because a wrong number at 11 PM feels very different from one at noon. Why: curiosity, then an excuse to keep going. A strong beat comes when one of them finally sees the other's profile photo.
Coffee shop
The coffee shop AU goes back further than you might think. SYFY WIRE traced it in 2021 to “Café de l'Amour”, an NSYNC fan fiction from 2001 by a fan writing as NSyncGrrl. A common setup, the same article says, has one character as a barista and the other as a recurring customer.
The problem for a chat story is that they meet face to face, so why text? Give them a reason away from the counter: a number written on a cup, a phone left on a table, or the shop's account answering a complaint.
Who texts whom: the barista, the regular, and the coworker who sees everything. When: before opening and after closing, the only hours a barista can type. Why: the regular has not come in for three days.
School
Interaksyon reported in February 2019 that “Along España”, another Saludes thread, put a student from the University of Santo Tomas next to “a vlogger from De La Salle University”. He “desperately needs to interview famous vloggers for research”, and she is “the woman he ghosted 2 years ago”.
That is a school AU built for chat, because a requirement forces a message neither character wants to send. Who texts whom: the class group chat, the groupmates, and the one person who left the last message on seen. When: around deadlines, so every time stamp counts down. Why: a grade depends on it, which is a very good excuse to message someone you avoid.
Office
An office gives you two chats for the same two people. There is the work group chat, where everyone is polite, and the private messages, where they are not, and the gap between the two is the story.
Who texts whom: coworkers, the boss in the group chat, and the pair on the side. When: a message after office hours means more than one sent at 10 AM. Why: work gives them a reason to talk every day, and the office gives them a reason to hide it.
AU story ideas with no new world: the group chat
The setup can be as small as a barkada group chat. The pair talk in the group like everyone else, then message each other privately about what was just said there.
Who texts whom: everyone in the group, plus the two leads on the side. When: during the group's busiest moments, so the side chat runs while the group keeps talking. Why: neither can say the real thing in front of everyone, until one of them sends a private message to the group by mistake.
Whatever the setup, the chats are made up, so keep them fiction and never use them to put words in a real person's mouth.
If you use Vaumu
Vaumu is an iPhone and iPad app for writing AU chat stories. You make each character once and use them in every chat of your AU, so the office group chat and the private one share the same faces. The free version has WhatsApp, iMessage, Instagram DM, Messenger and LINE chat screens plus X posts. It holds one AU with as many chats as you like, plus three loose chats. Pictures saved from the free version carry a faint vaumu watermark in the middle of the screen.
- Tap +, choose “Cast”, fill in “Name” and “Change photo”, then tap “Create”. Do this once for each character.
- Tap + again, choose “New AU”, fill in “AU title”, pick the “Cast of this AU” and “Me (phone owner)”, then tap “Create”.
- In your AU, tap +, choose the “App” that fits your setup and “Who's in this chat?”, then tap “Create”. For the office or group chat setups, pick more than one other person and the chat becomes a group. WhatsApp and iMessage then show each sender's name, and “Settings” has a “Group name” and “Group photo”.
- Type in “Type as”, tap “Send”, then tap the share icon and “Save or share”.
Vaumu Pro opens unlimited AUs and chats, pictures without the watermark and “Save page by page” for TikTok slides. Pro's custom and random message times help the setups where timing is the plot, like the late-night wrong number. Pro also adds live chat video and your own chat wallpaper on WhatsApp, and opens the IG post, IG story, WA status, WhatsApp call and lock screen notification screens. Every story stays on your phone with no account, and “Back up” saves them all to one file.
Which of the five will send the first message in your next AU?
