Google Changes Salad Emoji By Removing The Egg To Make It Friendly For Vegans

Google doesn't always update its emojis, but when it does, there is bound to be some backlash from users who aren't happy with it.

What Google Has Changed About The Salad Emoji

Google's famous salad emoji just went through a wardrobe change. On June 6, Google revealed that it will be changing the salad emoji by removing the egg that was on it. The company also announced other changes to its emojis and new ones as well.

It ditched the egg from the salad emoji to be more inclusive to vegan users. As per the strict diets of vegans, eggs are typically forbidden.

"There's big talk about inclusion and diversity at Google so if you need any evidence of Google is making this priority," Jennifer Daniel, the creative director for Android, tweeted. "May I direct your attention to the emoji — we've removed the egg in Android P beta 2, making this a more inclusive vegan salad."

This is not the first time Google has changed a food emoji. In 2017, it moved the cheese on the burger emoji on top of the beef instead of below.

Why Did Google Change The Emoji?

The reason Google changed the salad emoji was not a result of aesthetics. Instead, it was entirely because of a complaint that was received from one user.

Google allows users to submit suggestions about bugs and other issues. It recently received a complaint from a user about the salad emoji.

"The Greek salad emoji includes a hard-boiled egg," the user wrote. "I'd like to suggest that this should be replaced with a cucumber slice or other items. The Unicode's description of this emoji is a 'bowl of healthy salad containing lettuce, tomato, and other salad items such as cucumbers.' The inclusion of eggs is unnecessary."

To be more inclusive to vegans, Google made the change. Google only provides major updates for specific emojis.

"There has to be a really good vision why we're going to revisit something because it's already a part of the lexicon that people are working with," Daniel told The Outline.

What Does This Change Mean For Google And For Users?

Meat eaters might be disgruntled by the news that the egg will be eliminated from the salad emoji. However, the latest Android update also includes improved aesthetics to the bacon emoji.

While it is great that Google changed the salad emoji to be more inclusive, critics say that it still needs to be more inclusive with its workforce, which is still mostly men and mostly white.