Clicks Communicator is a Companion Keyboard Phone for Your Phone

A new year is here and the new weird has already arrived. Clicks, the company who has spent the last couple of years selling attachable Blackerry-esque keyboards to smartphones, is now making a companion smartphone for your daily smartphone. See, we’re getting weird.

The Clicks Communicator, as you can see from the image above, looks a lot like a Blackberry and that’s because it was designed by a bunch of folks who loved Blackberry. But this isn’t just another attempt to revive Blackberry and is instead going to arrive as a secondary device for those who might want to unplug from their full phone experience, have a dedicated messaging machine, or just do something different for a bit.

So we’re clear – this is a phone. The Clicks Communicator is a $499 phone with a dedicated physical keyboard, small 4″ display, 5G modem, dual cameras, and 4000mAh battery with Android 16 taking care of the software experience. That software experience will be powered by a custom setup from the Niagara Launcher developers and have a focus out of the box on messaging apps.

For more details there, we’re looking at a MediaTek chipset powering it, 1080p AMOLED display, Qi2 built-in, Nano + eSIM support, 50MP rear camera, 24MP selfie camera, 256GB storage (with SD slot), NFC, and 3.5mm headphone jack. It has swappable back plates, a mute switch, power button with colored ring to let you know what notifications are awaiting your attention, and an aluminum frame. It measures in at 130.5 x 78.63 x 12mm and weighs 170g.

Software support includes 2 years of Android updates and 5 years of security patches.

The pitch for this thing is a bit odd, if I’m being honest. Clicks is hoping you have an extra $500 to spend on a budget Android device to accompany your main device, all because you might want to click on physical keys when typing out messages or responding to emails. They aren’t really telling us if this will work some magic between devices either, but it instead just sounds like a secondary device you’ll setup that you might use in a limited capacity as a break from your main device. Like, I don’t think there are any special software tricks here attaching Communicator to your Pixel 10, for example.

So what we have is a second phone you’ll have to manage that might put Niagara Launcher at the front with messaging apps leading the way. You can put a SIM in it for true network connectivity, but I’d guess you’ll just hotspot it to your other phone if you don’t want to pay for cellular on two devices. That could be fine I guess. Think of it like the setup you might use with your iPad or Kindle or other devices you carry on the regular.

Huh. It’s kind of a cool idea, right?

Clicks Communicator is supposed to launch “later this year.” You can reserve one now by giving Clicks a $199 deposit. This will also lock-in an early bird final price of $399 ($100 discount from retail).

Reserve Clicks Communicator