Apple was the first one to change its gun emoji into a squirt gun. It was in 2016 when the iPhone maker decided that perhaps a wholesome water gun emoji would be a better choice than an emoji of a real gun. Now, two years later, other tech giants like Google and Facebook have also realized the value of changing their gun emojis.
Facebook’s Statement Regarding Its Decision
One of Facebook’s representatives mentioned that consistency is its main reason for changing its gun emoji. The company aims to prevent confusion across platforms. This is why Facebook also wants to discuss the topic of consistency with the Unicode Consortium, an organization that supervises emojis.
Google Following the Gun Emoji Trend
Google has already changed its gun emoji to a very bright orange water gun with a yellow water reservoir, so the next Android update (Android P) will have the new squirt gun emoji fresh from the factory. Google said that its decision to swap its pistol emoji for a water gun was also based on their aim to be consistent with other companies. Nevertheless, among all tech giants, Google seems to have made the version that looks most like a toy.
Other Tech Companies Follow Suit
Although it has already been two years since Apple started the change, many other tech companies still continue to follow suit, including Microsoft, WhatsApp, Samsung, and Twitter. Microsoft said that they have changed their gun emoji due to the feedback that they received, although there’s a big chance that the company also did it to be consistent with other companies.
It was in 2015 when an anti-gun organization asked Apple to delete the gun icon from its emoji collection. Apple, however, did not completely cater to the request. Instead, the tech giant decided to just tweak the emoji a bit to make it seem more wholesome, but it was still good news for the campaign’s organizers, who considered the change a success for their campaign.
Why Emoji Consistency Across Platforms Is Important
As mentioned, the Unicode Consortium oversees emojis and defines what every single emoji is. However, companies are allowed to decide what each of these emojis will look like within their platforms, which is also why each icon has a different look across devices. This explains why consistency is very important. If companies don’t value uniformity, there will be confusion among users. Someone can text another person a water gun emoji and the recipient may see a pistol emoji instead. This has become a problem when Apple was the only one who used the squirt gun emoji instead of a pistol one.
Nevertheless, this will no longer be a problem today since other companies have started following Apple’s move. The only problems left behind by the change of the gun emoji are when users browse through their message histories and if they do not upgrade to their system’s latest updates. Needless to say, it’s up to the people to understand how emojis are used, but it’s good to know that tech companies seem to value how emojis are now a big part of everyday communication.
