“More than one hundred new and redesigned emoji characters will be available to iPhone and iPad users this fall with iOS 10”, Apple said in a statement on Monday. The new emoji is simply listed among several other emoticons that will also be released with iOS 10, including a rainbow flag and female athletes and professionals. A rainbow flag and two different gender options that depict families with single parents are also included.
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Apple has created 100 new emoji, including changing the gun emoji into a water pistol as part of a plan to make the animations more diverse and family friendly.
Apple doesn’t create emojis; they’re made by the independent Unicode Consortium, which standardizes the way emoji characters are encoded so that they can appear on a series of platforms, including iOS and Android. Not to mention, there is a new set of skin tones; to add to the overhaul of old emojis. Apple announced on August 1 that there will be a variety of new icons once iOS 10 is available for download this fall, and we have the scoop on all the big changes!
The exact release date for iOS 10 has not been revealed yet, but it is expected to come sometime in September.
The water gun swap is not Apple’s first foray into cartoon gun control. In another case, a Texas teen was arrested over what police said was a tweet that reportedly threatened officers with a pistol emoji.
In France, a man was sent to prison for three years after using a gun emoji in a text to his girlfriend. Some second amendment advocates may see this as an attack, but there is no need for violence with emojis especially with all of the shootings in the news lately.
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The new water gun emoji replacing the pistol was introduced over a year after the #DisarmTheiPhone movement started, a social media campaign launched by the advocacy group New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.
