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posted by martyb on Friday April 27 2018, @06:50PM   Printer-friendly
from the set-emoji-on-stun dept.

The pistol emoji ― 🔫 ― is being phasered out, or turned into a water pistol:

Google is the latest company to ditch the pistol with a new emoji update for Android users. The switch to a bright orange and yellow water gun, rolling out now, mimics changes made by Apple, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Samsung over the last few years. That leaves Microsoft as the only major platform with the realistic handgun emoji. True, Facebook still uses it, but a spokesperson for the company confirmed to Emojipedia that it would also be replacing its gun emoji with a toy water gun. The Verge has reached out to Microsoft for comment.

[...] Ironically, Microsoft initially displayed the gun emoji as a toy, but changed it to a revolver in 2016 as part of its emoji redesign project. With Google's (and Facebook's) latest move, Microsoft's gun emoji puts it at philosophical odds with the other giant tech companies based in the US where gun violence is a major concern. As we previously noted, in 2016 Apple successfully pushed to remove the rifle icon from the standardized collection of emoji.

However, later on the day The Verge's article was published, Microsoft revealed that it is jumping on the trend as well:

We are in the process of evolving our emojis to reflect our values and the feedback we've received. Here's a preview: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DbqXVKBU0AAdXLk.jpg

Also at BBC and USA Today.

Previously: Apple Changes "Pistol" Emoji From Revolver to Toy Water Gun
Apple Urged to Rethink Gun Emoji Change
Twitter Changes Revolver Emoji to Water Pistol Emoji

Related: Kids Are Facing Criminal Charges for Using Emoji


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday April 28 2018, @04:07AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday April 28 2018, @04:07AM (#672919) Journal

    It gives the Unicode Consortium something to do that more people care about than adding something like the Tangut script [wikipedia.org].

    It standardized a set of symbols that were being used by competing mobile providers. 📱📞

    It gives you a set of useful symbols that you can add in web applications. ⚠ 💾

    It even gives people something to complain about (not to mention that movie). There's really no downside. 👌😂

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