The Real Purpose Behind the McDonald’s Drink Buttons Has People Losing It

Danielle Harling
·2 min read

YOU KNOW ALL those buttons on top of McDonald's drink lids? People assumed they pretty much cracked the code when it was revealed that the round doodads indicate the type of soda inside, but it seems that internet sleuths only partially solved the mystery.

A recent tweet from the account @todayyearsoldig offered a look into the true purpose of the lid's rectangular buttons.

Essentially, the rectangular buttons serve as a sort of reset. If a McDonald's worker were to accidentally press the wrong circular button and label the wrong beverage, they can correct their error. Video from @todayyearsoldig shows that if the rectangular button is pressed, the circle next to it immediately pops up.

The tweet has since received tons of comments from people who were shocked at the unexpected reveal.

"Okay, usually I know these. I knew about pushing in the bubble, but I had no clue what that rectangular extrusion was," one surprised user wrote.

There were also plenty of comments from people who shared what they previously thought the buttons were for. And their ideas were pretty hilarious.

"Not gonna lie when I was younger I would push those buttons in and swear it made the drink taste better but all of em at once was nasty," someone tweeted.

And then, there were, of course, those people who flat out don't believe the buttons were made for labeling drinks or resetting another button.

"It's for reducing spillage risks. Carrying these in a vehicle involves quite a lot of bouncing and sloshing. So lid designers had to figure out a way to minimize the amount of coffee lost to bumpy drives. As a result, most lids have recessed portions," one user explained.

What did you think they were used for?

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