Everyone (except Microsoft) is using the water pistol emoji now
On platforms and devices, software and apps, the emoji keyboard is a gun-free zone. Well, almost.
On Wednesday, Google rolled out an Android update for the emoji keyboard that replaces the gun emoji with a "toy water pistol." And according to Emojipedia, a similar change is imminent on Facebook.
Apple (via Unicode), Samsung, Twitter, and WhatsApp for Android have also all previously replaced guns with toy water pistols.
Emojipedia reports that in the past, Google hedged on the change. But it has also emphasized its desire to be consistent with other platforms. That "consistency" is surely what drove this change — definitely not the gun control movement which has literally taken over the country in the wake of February's Parkland, FL shooting.
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Google and Facebook's switch leaves one major player still with a straightforward, and not "playful" gun emoji option. That's Microsoft, on its Windows devices. Interestingly, though, Microsoft initially had a "ray gun" as its gun option. It only switched to a pistol in 2016 — the same year that Apple opted for a water gun option.
Ridding emoji keyboards of guns may sound like a trivial move in the effort to end gun violence — and it was a decision that certainly would irked some gun rights advocates. But with emoji more and more defining the way we speak to each other, and with the evidence that words and images impact the way that we actually think and act in the world, taking a gun out of our visual lexicon may be a more powerful act than it seems.
Topics Activism Facebook Google Microsoft Social Good
