You Can Finally Order McDonald's Through Your Phone

McDonald's, which has been slow on the uptake when it comes to new customer-centric technologies, has finally developed a mobile ordering system. For now, ordering through the McDonald's app will only be available universally in the UK, but it's also being tested in select American markets and will be released to the general public when the bugs are worked out.

"We can't impact the speed or the quality of our food," Jim Sappington, McDonald's executive vice president of operations, digital and technology, told Reuters. "Our focus is to make the overall experience clearly better."

As for why they are only just now entering the mobile ordering game after competitors like Starbucks started rolling out these features in 2015 and 2016?

"It's better to be right than to be first to market," McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook told press.

Here's the catch: You have to be physically inside the store to order. Meaning you can't just wake up craving a Shamrock Shake, order on your phone, and run over to pick it up. The customer instead will punch in his or her order via smartphone, then scan a QR code at the front of the store. The new feature basically just ensures you don't have to talk to any human beings while satisfying your fast-food craving.