Apple removes handgun emoji, replaces it with a squirt gun
“Apple’s latest software update for the iPhone and iPad features one of its subtlest but most symbolically significant design changes yet. iOS 10, which will be available for free download this fall, removes the revolver emoji and replaces it with a squirt gun,” Carl Franzen reports for Popular Science.
“The change is available now to developers who download iOS 10 beta,” Franzen reports. “But if you do install iOS 10 beta 4, the revolver is gone and a green squirt gun with an orange tip appears in its place. The squirt gun emoji change comes alongside ‘more than 100’ other changes to Apple’s emoji, including more options for skin tones, more women in diverse professional roles, and more detailed characters. In one example, the ‘Running Man’ emoji appears more 3D.”
Current handgun emoji (left) and Apple’s replacement, a green squirt gun (right)
“With millions of people using emoji in their daily communications, even the smallest changes will have significant impacts on our conversations. Apple’s stances on emoji can’t help but have political ramifications, in other words,” Franzen reports. “In this case, the change to the squirt gun emoji comes two years after a social media campaign called #DisarmTheiPhone was launched by advocacy group New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, with the goal of pressuring Apple to drop support for the revolver emoji.”
