Many tech giants including Google, Facebook, Apple, WhatsApp, Twitter, Samsung, have ditched the pistol emoji to reflect their values in light of the elevated incidents of gun violence in the US.
Microsoft did draw attention as they still hadn’t replaced the pistol emoji, while all of the major tech competitors have already ditched the pistol emoji.
As per a tweet posted today, Microsoft has now announced that the company plans to change the pistol emoji to a water gun emoji to reflect their values and feedback they have received.
We are in the process of evolving our emojis to reflect our values and the feedback we’ve received. Here’s a preview: pic.twitter.com/BlB3yYTSht
— Microsoft (@Microsoft) April 25, 2018
As a result of this change, when anyone sends the pistol emoji from a smartphone, it will show up as a water pistol on all of the platforms supported by the above tech giants, now including Microsoft.
We have updated the comparison of Gun Emoji, originally prepared by Emojipedia, which shows a quick snapshot of the history of Pistol Emoji, and how it has evolved over the years.
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