When Phones Were Fun: HTC Status, 2011

Michael Fisher (MrMobile) revisits the HTC Status/ChaCha, arguing it was a misunderstood last wave of purpose-built messaging phones killed by Facebook’s brand toxicity.

• HTC Status sold so poorly AT&T reportedly planned to drop it within 2 months of its summer 2011 launch, priced at just $49 on contract.
• The phone’s dedicated Facebook button was context-aware, not a dumb shortcut — it lit up when you took photos, visited locations, or listened to music.
• HTC’s smartphone division, despite releasing standout hardware, eventually failed independently and was folded into Google to build Pixel phones.
• The Status/ChaCha had at least 4 names across markets; ‘ChaCha’ was a pejorative in Spain and triggered a lawsuit from the US search engine Cha.com.
• Facebook hardware flopped again in 2013 with the HTC First, and didn’t return seriously until Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2023.
• Fisher, a co-founder of Clicks keyboard technology, says its newer keyboard redesigned key shapes partly from lessons learned from the Status’s cramped QWERTY.
• Google cut off old Android sign-on in 2021, making it impossible to demo the Status’s Facebook integrations today.
• New entrants UniZ, Keyphone, Zeninoa, and Side Phone suggest a niche market still exists for purpose-built compact communicators.

2025-10-16 · Watch on YouTube