Matias Duarte on Google’s ‘Share’ Icon

Matias Duarte, “one year ago” (that’s the actual granularity of the time stamps in Google Plus), on why Google’s iOS apps use Google’s share icon:

The share icon Google uses in its properties (and the share icon that Android endorses) is a popular opensource icon and one that we feel well describes the connective nature of sharing. In a sense you could say we believe it’s part of our brand and that Google’s brand is to embrace the open and universal standard.

I keep wanting to say “Android’s share icon” instead of “Google’s share icon”, but the more I think about it, the more clear it is that Google is pushing a meta platform UI style, and Android is just one outlet for it. I don’t think they see their iOS apps as being Android-style, but rather Google-style.

★ Wednesday, 5 November 2014