One thing Apple does better than Google: The cheeseburger emoji

Emoji looking different depending on what operating system you're using is nothing new. Send an emoji to a friend from your Samsung phone and there's a good chance it looks different on a Motorola phone, Google phone or Apple iPhone — sometimes to the point of confusion. But now, we have a real crisis: look at Google's "cheeseburger" emoji. Wait ... why is the cheese on the bottom of the burger?

cheeseburger emoji

Yes, this is one place where iOS unequivocally gets things right. Apple places the cheese on top of the patty, as we've all seen time and time again from backyard cookouts to fancy new american eateries. Someone at Google — presumably backed up by a vetting process — chose to put the cheese under the patty. Oh my.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted that fixing this was his top priority — provided people could come to a consensus on where the cheese belongs.

He is slightly joking, of course, but seriously Mr. Pichai please get this figured out. Google is clearly on the wrong side of this argument.

Despite the canonical name for this emoji actually being "hamburger" and not technically a cheeseburger, all major platforms have taken it on as such. And every single one, aside from Google, puts the cheese on top of the patty. Additional accouterments like lettuce and tomato also find various placements across the companies, but none of those issues is as big as where you put the cheese — we'll get to those arguments next.

Go look at your phone: is the cheese on the top of the patty, or do you have the wrong emoji? If the latter, it's time to go follow Sundar Pichai on Twitter and make sure you keep up with the developments here.

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Andrew Martonik

Andrew was an Executive Editor, U.S. at Android Central between 2012 and 2020.