The Clicks Communicater smartphone on display. Startup Clicks Technology makes a Blackberry phone.<\/p>\n
Clicks<\/p>\n
When Apple<\/a> launched the iPhone in 2007, physical keyboards quickly lost ground to touchscreens and faded from mainstream smartphones.<\/p>\n Now, a new wave of startups, including U.K.-based Clicks Technology and Chinese firm Unihertz, is bringing them back and carving out a niche for phones with tactile buttons.<\/p>\n The shift away from buttons once seemed final. Blackberry, long known for its keyboard phones, stopped producing hardware in 2016 and shuttered its software services in 2022. <\/p>\n But fans of its squarish phones with its signature keyboard remain loyal to the brand. The r\/Blackberry<\/a> subreddit has 25,000 members who share tips and nostalgia for the devices.<\/p>\n The renewed interest reflects a broader pattern, said Jung Younbo, a communications professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.<\/p>\n “We tend to use our smartphones as a kind of means to express ourselves,” said Younbo. As phones become more embedded in daily life, trends around them increasingly resemble cyclical fashion trends, he added.<\/p>\n For some users, the appeal is less about nostalgia and more about control. Clicks Technology’s co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Jeff Gadway, said about 45% of their customer base has never used a phone with a physical keyboard.<\/p>\n “They look at this not as a nostalgia play, but as an entirely new way to use their phone that’s more intentional,” he told CNBC.<\/p>\n Reducing screentime<\/p>\n That sense of intention is part of the draw for 23-year-old content creator Chonnie Alfonso, who typically features retro gadgets on her YouTube channel<\/a>. <\/p>\n She said switching to a keyboard device introduced friction, prompting her to rethink how often she used her phone.<\/p>\n Having “an extra barrier of inconvenience that adds more steps into the thinking process” as opposed to “an accessible slab of glass in your hand” has become a way for her to reduce the time she spends on her phone, Alfonso told CNBC.<\/p>\n Doomscrolling is less suited to square-shaped, BlackBerry-style smartphones. Alfonso said switching to a keyboard device has helped her spend less time on social media and take better control of her schedule.<\/p>\n Clicks Technology’s Gadway said the company’s device emphasizes messaging and core functions, aiming to keep users focused on their original tasks instead of drifting into other apps.<\/p>\n The phone, featuring messaging apps on a home launcher, is designed to ensure users do what they originally set out to do, rather than ending up on a “side quest,” he said.<\/p>\n “It’s about making the time you spend on your phone more valuable to you.”<\/p>\n Choice vs consolidation<\/p>\n Beyond behavior, the devices also revive features that have largely disappeared from mainstream smartphones.<\/p>\n Gadway said Clicks offers keyboards in various languages, interchangeable back covers, expandable memory card storage and a physical 3.5 mm headphone jack, rather than wireless connectivity, features that modern smartphones have mostly ditched<\/a>.<\/p>\n For Wei Lun Ng, a 23-year-old audio enthusiast, having a phone that supports wired headphones has become a practical preference. <\/p>\n “I think it doesn’t cut out as much because when your battery is low, on like, a wireless headphone or wireless earphone, it will start cutting out \u2026 [they’re] more convenient,” he said. <\/p>\n BERLIN, GERMANY – JULY 15: Sonia Lyson is seen wearing a beige cropped short-sleeve drawstring shirt with collar from Zara; a yellow golden Tank Am\u00e9ricaine wristwatch with rectangular dial from Cartier; an iPhone from Apple with a lip gloss phone case in dusky pink from Rhode and a fitting lip gloss attached to it; white wired EarPods headphones from Apple; her long blonde hair is styled in soft waves on July 15, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Moritz Scholz\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Moritz Scholz | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images<\/p>\n Wired headphones are also less likely to get misplaced compared to wireless earbuds, he says.<\/p>\n And they’re cheaper. The cheapest model of Apple’s AirPods, which connects using Bluetooth, is currently priced at $129, whereas their wired earpieces retail for $19. <\/p>\n Tactile communication <\/p>\n Unexpectedly, the keyboards have also attracted users with accessibility needs.<\/p>\n Gadway said some people with low vision or motor control challenges found it easier to type on physical keys than on touchscreens, regaining confidence in daily use.<\/p>\n People who make frequent typing mistakes might find physical keyboards useful, Nanyang Technological University’s Younbo said. <\/p>\n Despite most smartphones offering auto-spelling correction, “people don’t really utilize that [feature] much because it changes the word to totally different words that you don’t intend to use,” he said.<\/p>\n