Apple's bagel emoji angers internet

On Tuesday, Apple shared the first image of its bagel, which it said will be "coming soon" to the iPhone with iOS 12.1.

By AMY SPIRO
Updated: OCTOBER 3, 2018 15:42
Array of bagel emojis (photo credit: UNICODE CONSORTIUM)
Array of bagel emojis
(photo credit: UNICODE CONSORTIUM)
After months of anticipation, Apple unveiled its new bagel emoji this week. And users of the internet do not seem happy.
Earlier this year, the Unicode Consortium announced that a bagel emoji would be added to its official catalog of icons used by messaging and social media applications around the globe.
And on Tuesday, Apple shared the first image of its bagel, which it said will be "coming soon" to the iPhone with iOS 12.1.
Apple's bagel emoji
Apple's bagel emoji
In a scathing article, New York Magazine’s Grub Street said its “disappointment is truly overwhelming. Take a look at this clearly machine-cut monstrosity with its stiff and bready interior, which couldn’t possibly be redeemed by a few minutes in a toaster.” The article also lamented the distressingly smooth crust: “Is it really a bagel if there isn’t a disgusting amount of cream cheese that needs to be wiped off with a napkin before you can consume it? To be frank, this bagel emoji should only be used to illustrate what kind of bagel you don’t want your friend to pick up on the way over.”
As with most emojis, the appearance differs widely across various platforms. On Twitter, the bagel emoji indeed comes with a layer of cream cheese. On some platforms it’s adorned with sesame or poppy seeds.
But the smooth, empty Apple bagel rendering had many Twitter users disappointed.
"Apple finally made a bagel emoji and it's the most gentile bagel ever baked," wrote Josh Glancy, the Washington correspondent for the UK Sunday Times. "Look at that spongy, bready interior. That smooth, machine-cut surface," he added. "A bagel is not just circular bread!"
Pat Kiernan, the morning news anchor of NY1, was also not impressed.
“You call this factory-produced bagel an emoji that stands for all bagels???” he tweeted. “New Yorkers demand more.”
Rachel King, a tech and entertainment editor for Fortune magazine, wrote that “this could be bigger than Google’s hamburger emoji gaffe.”
If you don’t remember, last year Google came under fire when it’s version of the hamburger emoji featured the cheese at the very bottom of the sandwich. The company quickly fixed the emoji to move the cheese to the top of the patty, allowing the Internet to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
That is, until the next emoji scandal erupts.