There have been several cases in the past when Samsung either used Apple-inspired designs or straight up copied them. Now, the South Korean brand has copied Apple’s Face ID icon and used it in one of its CES 2020 keynote slides.

During Samsung’s CES 2020 keynote event, the company was showcasing various features of Samsung Pass, a password manager and user authentication service that comes pre-installed on some of its smartphones and tablets. A few spectators and bloggers noticed that Samsung was using an icon that looked a lot like Apple’s Face ID icon, and indeed, it was exactly the same.

Samsung straight up stole the Face ID icon pic.twitter.com/ifGcIDxIlb

— Parker Ortolani (@ParkerOrtolani) January 7, 2020

Parker Ortolani, who leads the product development at BuzzFeed, was the first to notice the stark resemblance between the Face ID icon from Apple and what Samsung showcased on the stage. He quickly tweeted the image while the South Korean brand’s keynote was still underway.

Interestingly, people noticed that the Face ID icon was inspired by the old Macintosh face icon. Others claimed on Twitter that the iPhone maker also ripped off a lot of features and design elements from Android and other brands.

In the past, Apple had filed lawsuits against Samsung for copying and ripping off the software UI design from iPhones and iPads in its Android-based smartphones and tablets. The lawsuit also claimed that the South Korean chaebol copied hardware design from the Cupertino-based firm on several occasions.

Our Take

Over the past few years, instances of Samsung borrowing or copying Apple’s hardware and software design elements have greatly reduced. Samsung has even created its own UI design language called One UI.

We don’t know whether the company intentionally copied the Face ID icon or it was just a case of a keynote slides designer working in a hurry.