- App Store Badge Design
A microscopic annoyance that forever irks me is the discrepancies between the ‘Get it on Google Play’ and ‘Download on the App Store’ badges. They use the same pure black background, the same #a6a6a6 border colour, and the same general layout, but all the finer details differ.
It is as if they made a vague, loose attempt at coordinating, then gave up. Indeed, I imagine that this is exactly what happened. Apple and Google attempted coordination, then brand adherence and marketing won out, killing any potential for cohesion. Ironically, this decision has probably harmed their marketing and brand control, because I’ve seen cases where people have modified the badges to work together as a set.
It plays like a game of spot-the-difference. The Play Store icon is larger, different fonts are used, the text is aligned differently, they’re different widths, and one reads ‘Get it on’ in uppercase while the other reads ‘Download on the’ in lowercase. These badges are so very commonly presented next to each other, and I can’t speak to the number of times I’ve seen their alignment wrong or one given precedence over another due to their variation.
At least if they were significantly differing, there’d be no illusion of them intending to match, but because they’re so close, it just looks sloppy. You really get a feel for the differences when the badges are overlayed (here I’ve recoloured the borders for illustrative purposes):
This style of badge isn’t just employed by Apple and Google, however. They might be the most common to use it, but it is also employed by the Amazon Appstore, the Samsung Galaxy Store, the Microsoft Store, and Huawei AppGallery.