I believe in BlackBerry’s comeback

Summary

BlackBerry was a popular phone brand in the 2000’s and early 2010’s, famous for its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service and its then-popular array of miniature physical keyboards.
Many are nostalgic about BlackBerry, which has all but ceased its presence in the modern smartphone market.
A new Bring Back BlackBerry petition has been launched by the well-known CrackBerry Kevin, who also works on the Clicks Keyboard accessory line for iPhone and Android.

The world works in mysterious ways. Once considered the king of the smartphone arena, BlackBerry gave way to another fruit-insignia-laden phone maker as we entered the 2010s. The popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) texting service was supplanted by iMessage, and the ubiquity of miniature physical keyboards was swept away by a new breed of touch-based virtual keyboards.

The rest, as they say, is history. BlackBerry attempted a reboot in the form of the rejuvenated Z10 and Q10 handsets, followed by a monumental pivot over to the Android software ecosystem, first with the likes of the slider-style Priv, then eventually with the Key series. After then outsourcing future models to third-parties, the release of BlackBerry phones as a whole was reduced to a trickle, and then to nothing at all.

Now, there’s an all-new revivalist movement brewing under the surface, with the tip of the spear being the Bring Back BlackBerry petition launched by CrackBerry Kevin of CrackBerry.com infamy.

CrackBerry Kevin, whose real name is Kevin Michaluk, has taken to Threads to hard-launch this petition. With a more in-depth article published on CrackBerry, the message is clear: it’s time to find out whether the BlackBerry brand still has cachet in a world filled with Galaxies, iPhones, and Pixels.

Clicks Keyboard accessory on Pixel 9 phone.

Turn your Android into a BlackBerry with the Clicks Keyboard

Clicks is bringing its stylized BlackBerry-like keyboard accessory to select Android devices.

Half the battle has already been won

The Clicks accessory brand has been quietly honing its craft

Clicks

Outside of founding the CrackBerry publication, Michaluk is the co-founder and President of Clicks Technology — a lineup of iPhone and Android phone cases that ship with BlackBerry-style physical keyboards. Clicks cases have gained notoriety for their unique retro-modern design, their fun colorways, and, naturally, their tactile clickability.

In other words, there’s already some level of demand for a smartphone with a physical keyboard in 2025, though it’s unclear how much of this is nostalgia-driven. For his part, Michaluk reports that forty-five percent of iPhone Clicks customers had never used a BlackBerry prior to purchasing a Clicks case, which suggests there’s deeper merit to the physical keyboard movement than initially meets the eye.

“I’ve got the track record. I’ve got the team. I’ve got the keys. Literally,” writes Michaluk, while teasing the idea of a theoretical Clicks and BlackBerry hardware collaboration.

We’ve seen other phone makers experiment with built-in miniature keyboards in recent years, too, including the recently-released Minimal Phone from the Minimal Company. Aside from an efficient typing experience, a hardwired keyboard makes sense from the standpoint of screen time and always-connected fatigue — a smaller display leaves less room for binge-watching shows and disappearing into the short-form vertical video ether.

I used a retro slider phone for a week, and the learning curve was steep

The BlackBerry Torch is one of the most iconic slider-style smartphones of all time – here’s what it’s like using the device in the year 2025.

What’s old is new again

Could BlackBerry join the revivalist pantheon home to Atari, Pebble, and others?

SoC: 624 MHz Marvell Tavor PXA940
Display: 3.2-inch 360 x 480 LCD
RAM: 512MB
Storage: 4GB
Operating System: BlackBerry OS 6

The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is a classic slider-style smartphone with a dedicated hardware keyboard, an optical trackpad, and a 3.2-inch touch screen.

Everyone loves a good comeback arc, and, personally, I’m very much in favor of the idea of a BlackBerry and Clicks collaboration, or any return to form for BlackBerry in the broader sense. As a Canadian, I have a vested interest in witnessing the rekindled success of the brand, but there’s no deep-seated sense of nostalgia on my end.

I’ve always been fond of the classic BlackBerry design language, and I remember being fascinated by the gesture-based BlackBerry 10 operating system (which I feel was very much ahead of its time). That being said, I only used a BlackBerry phone for the first time earlier this year, when I purchased and tested out the Torch 9800 from 2010.

…I’d love to see a Clicks-clad BlackBerry revival take hold.

Of course, I’d expect a modern-day BlackBerry to once again run Google’s Android OS, but I feel there’s enough of a differentiation factor here to help a modern-day BlackBerry handset stand apart from the crowd. While previous attempts have proven futile for the company, there’s a stronger sense of retro-futurism today than there was, say, when the Priv launched in 2015. In recent years, we’ve seen the likes of Atari and Pebble reemerge on the scene, and I’d love to see a Clicks-clad BlackBerry revival take hold in the same vein.

If you’re interested in signing the Bring Back BlackBerry petition, you can do so by following this link.