Can Modular Phone Accessories Finally Evolve Beyond MagSafe?

Predating the launch of Moto Mods in 2016, the first batch of Jolla The Other Half concepts included back covers with an extra E Ink display, an infrared camera, and an Angry Birds tie-in that activated themes and ringtones. But probably the most popular was a Blackberry/Nokia Communicator-style slider keyboard made and sold by two entrepreneurs from the original Jolla community. That trend is back in—at CES 2026, accessory company Clicks showed off a magnetic keyboard accessory you can slap on the back of any Qi2 or MagSafe smartphone, though it uses Bluetooth for connectivity.

Quite a bit has changed in what’s achievable, not least more bandwidth, more capability, and more accessible, high-quality 3D printing. “We have seven pogo pins [on the Jolla Phone] which give you the capability to get power out and power in,” says Jolla CEO Sami Pienimäki. “So you can do maybe wireless charging, and you can power external circuit boards.” Pienimäki imagines E Ink interfaces or low-bandwidth radios on the back of its upcoming phone—it has an I3C interface, which delivers bit rates up to 12 megabits per second, allowing data to flow between the phone and the mod, enabling new kinds of smarter modular accessories.

Jolla has promised to release the final phone specifications by the end of the month, with shipping due for the first preorder customers at the end of June. Pienimäki teases that it’s “tempting” for him to release one of Jolla’s own internal concepts for a TOH back cover even earlier as “a showcase of what you can actually do.” (The Jolla Phone doesn’t have FCC approval in the US, but the company is considering a US launch in the future.)

With more than 10,000 preorders since December 2025, Jolla is back in business but still far from mainstream. So why, despite plenty of internet hype over the years, did truly modular phones never quite take off?

“During the LTE days, there was thinking that these devices would morph into ‘cloud phones,’ where the rest of the phone could be cost-optimized,” Fieldhack says. “Swappable parts and lower costs, as most of the compute would be done in the cloud.”

But things changed as flagship phones went from costing $350 to around $1,000. Both the camera and media production and consumption became much more important: “Great displays, great cameras, multiple cameras, more memory, better sound and mics, as well as more elegant and thin devices—this is not easily done on a modular smartphone,” Fieldhack says. “There are huge compromises, and phones are thicker and heavier with less performance. Then, agentic AI, on-device for lower costs and better security, made modular design even less optimal.”

Repairable Modules

The Fairphone Gen 6 has replaceable covers that add extra functionality, like a wallet mod or a grip.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

One strong and emerging argument for true hardware modularity is repairability. Another European smartphone maker, Fairphone, has been making that case for over a decade. “It’s about thinking about how do we group the actual phone itself into modules?” says Fairphone chief technology officer Chandler Hatton. The latest FairPhone Gen 6 smartphone is made up of 12 modules. A customer sitting at the kitchen table with a single T5 screwdriver (included) and a guitar pick can repair the phone quickly, easily, and cheaply.