Apple is replacing the pistol emoji with a squirt gun emoji, the company announced on Monday.
(BusinessInsider)- New emoji icons, including emoji that depict female athletes and professionals, will be included as part of a new beta version of iOS for iPhones and iPads.
But as part of the latest update, Apple actually removed an emoji. Apple has replaced the handgun emoji with a bright green icon that looks like a classic Super Soaker water pistol.
This appears to be an Apple decision to change its icon — not a decision by Unicode, the body that writes the standards for computer characters, including emoji.
Activist groups have put pressure on Apple to change its cartoonish gun emoji, given the level of gun violence in the United States. Microsoft’s emoji font already interprets the gun emoji as a toy gun.