Flic and Dash: the wireless buttons that can make instant Amazon purchases and take one-touch selfies

The button is being resurrected in a smart way, says Phoebe Luckhurst
Quick wash: Amazon’s detergent button

The glacial surface of the touchscreen is elegant but it provides very little to hold on to. In moments of poor dexterity you have watched your device fly out of your clammy paw; its glacial surface is now disturbed by angry fissures. Sometimes you miss the clunky indestructability of older devices, the tactile pleasure of spongy buttons.

Pine no more, for the button is being resurrected. Inventors have decided that modern life is rubbish: in fact, we all want big red switches that make us feel, momentarily, like we might hold the fate of the whole world in our hands.

Flic is a “wireless smart button” (flic.io). Its Stockholm-based developer could not help throwing brave new lingo at it but this actually means it is a big fat button that does different things depending on whether you push it once, twice, or hold it down.

Download the Flic app and then stick the adhesive switch anywhere you wish and it connects — via wi-fi — to your Android or iOS device. On the app, you set the actions — for example, clicking once could kickstart a Spotify playlist, and double-clicking could open Facebook or your email account.

If yours is a smarthome, then well done for throwing yourself at a technological bandwagon. Also, Flic pairs with clever houses, so you could set one click to switch off your lights, or activate your clever heating, or power up your iKettle. It costs £22.

Cutting edge: Amazon Dash can instantly order razors

The origin of Flic is a “funny story”, explains developer Pranav Kosuri. “One of my co-founders wanted to quit tobacco and, as he’s an engineer, he decided to make an app. So he created a button app on his phone and every time he gave in, he pressed it. But every time he had to unlock his phone and push the button — and it made him think: ‘This should be easier’.”

Kosuri programmes his button to find his iPhone (“I’m always losing it in the house”), to tell him when the next bus is arriving, and to send a pre-written text to his colleagues to say he’s running late. The team has worked hard to ensure it is used correctly. “Our hardware can only communicate with our software,” Kosuri explains. “We have put a lot of emphasis on security — we don’t want any interception of communications.”

The development team suggest that Flic could also be used to help old people feel safer at home: they could programme their button to speed-dial relatives. As you can stick it anywhere, including on your person, it could also work as a personal safety device: you could set it to call a trusted contact or to send out a pre-written SOS message. Alternatively, you could use it to snap better selfies.

There’s another button on the block: Amazon has the Dash. Push it and it will replenish your supplies of everyday household items. The button costs $5 and works on the same technological principles as Flic. It’s available only to Amazon Prime members in the US and a UK release has not been announced, though surely the e-commerce titan won’t keep it to a single market for long. Some suggested that the timing of the announcement (March 31) meant it was an April Fool; underestimate Amazon at your peril.

Wireless chargers - in pictures

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While one reviewer likened it to a “Jetsonian future come to life”, the same writer also realised that it created a “dangerous” disconnect between purchasing something and spending money. A blogger showed that it was very easy to hack the button and repurpose it for your own needs — in his case that meant turning it into a baby monitor, but obviously few hackers would re-aim its function so benignly. “It’s fun that Amazon had the same idea,” Kosuri says diplomatically.

He thinks it’s the future: other developers are attracted to its “value proposition”. He then puts this more simply. “If you build a very intuitive app you want it to be simple and easy to use. Nothing can be more intuitive than a button.”

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