The sudden change comes after gun-control spokesperson asked for the pistol to be removed, but some emoji users were unimpressed by the new symbol.
Apple announced the change on Monday as a part of their “let’s make emoji’s more diverse/gender neutral” campaign.
“This exciting update brings more gender options to existing characters, including new female athletes and professionals, adds beautiful redesigns of popular emoji, a new rainbow flag and more family options,” an Apple statement said.
Meanwhile, on Twitter majority of people don’t agree with the change.
Finally.
Too many emoji lives have been lost at the hands of emoji guns. https://t.co/5QYB5u8B99
— Antonio Delgiacco (@ADDelgiacco) August 1, 2016
folks gonna send 🌊🔫 emojis w/ the same intent as the regular 🔫 emoji. emojis make people kill about as much as an actual firearm does. smh
— smelf2 (@smelf2) August 1, 2016
I just heard apple is replacing the gun emoji with a water gun. Really? Are we really that sensitive?
— Danica Patrick (@DanicaPatrick) August 2, 2016
Thanks for banning the gun emoji, Apple. This will finally stop ISIS ❤️
— Joshua Thifault (@JoshuaThifault) August 2, 2016