While Google may have been leading the charge for more inclusive emoji in its operating systems, it’s Apple that has beat everyone to actually including them.
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Apple is also introducing new and revamped images that show women performing stereotypically male professions including construction, detective work and policing.
Apple said more than 100 new and redesigned emoji characters will be available to iPhone and iPad users from the Autumn.
Apple has made a decision to remove the revolver emoji from its iOS lineup.
Microsoft, which was one of the consortium members that vetoed the rifle icon, has used a toy gun icon – with a superhero-esque lightning bolt on the side – for years.
Money also reports that the pistol emoji has gotten several people in trouble with the law.
As observed, the controversial pistol emoji has been depleted and replaced by a light green squirt gun emoji after New Yorkers against Gun Violence initiated a campaign to request Apple to change the emoji. In 2015, a Brooklyn teenager was arrested for posting Facebook updates with gun emojis pointing to police emojis.
No longer will the “family” options be limited to just or or variations on such, with the new emojis including single parents. It has been reported that Google was the first to submit a new set of 13 female emojis to the Unicode Consortium, back in May.
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In June, Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled iOS 10 for iPhones and iPads on the opening day of the annual Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. It launched a site, disarmtheiphone.com, and sent an open letter to remove the firearm emoji “as a symbolic gesture to limit gun accessibility”.
