Google changes egg salad emoji to make it VEGAN and the internet is furious
GOOGLE has quietly changed the salad emoji to make it vegan – by ditching the egg.
The tiny tweak has sparked fury among internet users who think the new salad emoji means Google is now guilty of "excluding non-vegans".
Google added hundreds of new emoji, and tweaked a number of existing icons, for the latest test version of its new Android P software.
This is Google's flagship software for Android smartphones, which currently account for 85.9% of handsets in the world.
A Google spokesperson confirmed that the change to the salad emoji was made to improve "inclusion".
And on Twitter, a Googler called Jennifer explained: "There's big talk about inclusion and diversity at Google so if you need any evidence of Google is making this priority may I direct your attention to the [salad] emoji.
"We've removed the egg in Android P beta 2, making this a more inclusive vegan salad."
Jennifer's tweets were quickly rounded on by angry emoji enthusiasts.
One irate user called @Kuraha_9 wrote: "Excuse me i don't have legs, could you cut yours off so i can feel included? That's how it works right?"
And @Fallenour thought it was a waste of time: "So instead of more privacy protections, better security, higher battery efficiences, better update processes, code analysis for Android market, or pretty much any reasonable change, Google removes an egg from a salad?"
Then @baileym00315530 asked: "Are people really offened by a salad emoji? Not even a real salad... an emoji of one lmfao."
Another user called @crazyvan25 was particularly flustered by the move: "Veganism is cancer... The end."
But while some salad lovers were angered by Google, it turns out that the decision may be right for a whole other reason.
According to Googler Jennifer, the Unicode Consortium (which is in charge of emoji) makes no mention of eggs in its official salad emoji description.
Her tweet explained: "Hello carnivores, vegans and everyone in between! Just want to clarify that the goal of salad emoji redesign was to create an image more faithful to unicode's description. 'A bowl of healthy salad, containing lettuce, tomato, and other salad items such as cucumber.' Bon appetite!"
Google added 157 new emoji in its latest Android P beta update, which is available from today.
Other changes include the addition of some gender-neutral emoji.
There's now a family icon that has two gender-neutral parents, rather than clear man and woman icons.
Apple announced similar gender-neutral emoji last year, so this is just Google playing catch-up.
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The changes won't go into the public version of Android for a while, however.
It's expected that Google will release Android P to users at some point between September and November this year.
So you've still got a few months to enjoy your egg-y salad before it disappears for good...
We've asked Google for comment on the salad emoji and will update this article with any response!
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