Google v/s Apple: the Hamburger Emoji Debate

A writer and media analyst sparked much furore and debate over Google’s burger emoji, which shows the cheese placed below the burger patty. And even Google CEO Sundar Pichai has chimed in on the issue.”I think we need to have a discussion about how Google’s burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top,” said author Thomas Baakdel, in a Tweet that has gathered 17,000 retweets and 1,500 replies.

Apple has followed the classic bun-tomato-cheese-patty-lettuce-bun arrangement, while Google has opted for the more unconventional bun-lettuce-tomato-patty-cheese-bun format. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has jumped in on the debate bandwagon and tweeted, “Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday, if folks can agree on the correct way to do this!”

McDonalds India has put the situation to good use with a light-hearted video to settle the debate. In the video, McDonald’s has said that irrespective of the order of contents in a burger, the burger is tasty as long as it’s from McDonald’s. KFC appeared to have followed suit to advertise their ‘no bun burger’. ‘Of course it’s gonna be delicious, but not with those buns’, said the video. This then sparked a friendly banter between the two burger giants, with a Tweet from McDonald’s saying “A burger without a bun is like a joke without a pun”.

 

Burger King too had their say in this matter.

 

While some social media users have sided with either Apple or Google, some users have dismissed both the emojis. Twitter user Mark Goodge writes, “They’re both wrong. Google’s cheese is wrong, Apple’s lettuce is wrong. The correct order, from bottom up, is burger – cheese – toppings”.

According to CNN, Companies like Google and Apple come up with their own interpretation of the symbols approved by the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit that sets the global standard for emoji and other software. That’s why emojis like the burger look different on iPhones than on Android devices.

Although there may not be a ‘right’ way to assemble a cheeseburger, some Twitter users believe Microsoft’s depiction of the emoji was the most accurate. “The burger emoji battle is fun, but let’s take a moment to point out that Microsoft is the only one that gets it completely right,” wrote user Rich Woods.