{"id":277597,"date":"2026-01-10T11:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T11:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/277597\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T11:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T11:56:12","slug":"the-clicks-co-founder-explains-who-its-tiny-communicator-phone-is-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/277597\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clicks co-founder explains who its tiny Communicator phone is for"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clicks is an apologetically gadgety company, making gear that feels charmingly out-of-place<\/a> in a world where almost every smartphone out there is an all-screen slab. That was obviously two years ago when the company first revealed its keyboard case that brought tactile typing to the iPhone and eventually other Android devices. Rather than that being a one-off curiosity, the company had two new announcements<\/a> at CES 2026: a magnetic keyboard accessory that also doubles as a battery bank and small, squat mobile phone with a keyboard. And while there isn\u2019t a working prototype of the Clicks Communicator available for the press to see, I got to check out the new Power Keyboard talk with Clicks co-founder and former BlackBerry marketing director Jeff Gadway about where he thinks his products fit into the smartphone world.<\/p>\n

At first glance, the $79 Power Keyboard feels like a big improvement over the original Clicks Keyboard case. It magnetically attaches to any phone with Qi2 and connects over Bluetooth. The keyboard itself is similar to the original Clicks keyboard, but there\u2019s a dedicated number row which is a nice improvement. But the thing that really caught my eye was its old-school slider form factor. When closed, the Power Keyboard sits on the back of your phone like a thick wireless battery pack \u2014 but it satisfyingly slides up to reveal the keyboard like the Palm Pre or BlackBerry Torch smartphones of old.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The magnetic, sliding Clicks Power Keyboard. (Nathan Ingraham for Engadget)<\/p>\n

The Power Keyboard\u2019s last trick is that it can charge your phone up when attached. The battery itself isn\u2019t huge, so you\u2019re not going to fully recharge a modern smartphone. But it\u2019s still a nice addition for if you need some power in a pinch. You can also set it up so it doesn\u2019t charge your phone and instead uses all the battery to power the keyboard; in that situation, the keyboard will last weeks without a charge. Or you can designate a percentage that can only be used by the keyboard \u2014 for example, if the battery pack\u2019s charge drops below 20 percent, it\u2019ll stop charging your phone and instead save that power for the keyboard.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Clicks Power Keyboard, without a phone attached. (Nathan Ingraham for Engadget)<\/p>\n

As someone who has never owned a smartphone with a keyboard, I can\u2019t say how good the Clicks keyboard actually is \u2014 there would be a definite learning curve before I got comfortable with it. It certainly feels tiny to me, but if you just type on and trust autocorrect you should get the hang of it before too long. Whether the benefits of using a physical keyboard matter are up to you to decide. It\u2019s nice seeing a bigger screen unobstructed by the virtual keyboard, but I feel far too set in my touchscreen ways to consider switching it up. But some people just loved their keyboards, and for them this gadget might hit the spot.<\/p>\n

The Clicks Communicator is the more unexpected of the two new devices the comapny is working on, but without a working demo model I can\u2019t render any judgement about how it will actually work. When it was announced, Clicks specifically said they were targeting people who used multiple devices, a demographic that I wasn\u2019t fully convinced was large enough to justify the Communicator\u2019s existence. But Gadway assured me the company had done plenty of research before moving into the hardware production phase.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’ve got people who are mandated to carry a second device for corporate deploy. Then you’ve got people who are small business owners and want to have a separate phone for their small business,\u201d he said. \u201cIn markets like Europe, there’s a requirement for employers to give people the option to have a separate device and create more separation. You’ve got travelers who want a second SIM, and then you’ve got this growing cohort of digital detox, digital minimalism, digital well-being people.\u201d None of those segments might be huge on its own, but add it all up and the Clicks team felt like they had a decent opportunity.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Clicks Communicator has an LED Light on its side button that you can customize for different notifications. (Nathan Ingraham for Engadget)<\/p>\n

The other half of the thought process was making the Communicator different from an iPhone or Pixel \u2014 instead of having two essentially identical devices, Clicks wanted to make the Communicator with a distinct focus. \u201cOur thought process was that complementary devices in tech are on the rise,\u2019 Gadway said. \u201cYou wear an Oura Ring and you wear a smart watch; you carry an e-reader for reading and a tablet for content consumption. So why shouldn’t your second phone be better at certain things than your first phone instead of just being a straight duplicate?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where the squarish, 4-inch touchscreen, keyboard and custom implementation of the Niagara Android launcher<\/a>, which is a list-based UI rather than a grid of apps. The custom Clicks implementation of it focuses on your messaging apps and quickly triaging through new items (hence the Communicator name). The keyboard itself is touch sensitive and can be swiped across to navigate and take actions on what you see. But the Communicator is just an Android phone at heart which means you can install any apps that you find essential \u2014 though its form factor changes what it is best used for. \u201cYou can download whatever apps you want, but we’ve optimized it to be better at specific things,\u201d Gadway said. \u201cSo, you know, do you want to watch letterboxed TikTok videos on this? Probably not. You could, but it’s not the thing you’re going to reach for to do that. But we’re not going to give you a product that restricts what you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good thing about being a smaller hardware maker is that Clicks doesn\u2019t need to sell millions of these \u2014 they\u2019re just interested in offering an alternative for people who might enjoy it, just as they\u2019ve done with their keyboard accessories. Of course, the Communicator is a bigger investment; it\u2019s up for pre-order now for $399 (that\u2019s Pixel 9a territory, for comparison). Once it launches in the second half of the year, we\u2019ll find out if it can find its audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clicks is an apologetically gadgety company, making gear that feels charmingly out-of-place in a world where almost every…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[3089,137643,140283,18,19,17,140284,279,50217,106493,82,140282,140281],"class_list":{"0":"post-277597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-clicks","9":"tag-clicks-communicator","10":"tag-clicks-keyboard","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-keyboard-case","15":"tag-mobile","16":"tag-mobile-phone","17":"tag-nathan-ingraham","18":"tag-technology","19":"tag-the-communicator","20":"tag-virtual-keyboard"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115870681256796612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}