A telephone apparatus includes a body part and a sleeve-like grip part mounted to the body part for longitudinal slidable movement between a retracted position and an extended position. Mechanically coupled to the body part and the grip part there is a spring for effecting the longitudinal slidable movement. A locking mechanism is provided for detachably locking the body part and the grip part into the retracted position. There is also a user-actuatable releasing actuator for releasing the locking mechanism. The releasing actuator is located within the grip part.