The forthcoming iOS 10 has an emoji focus: Apple has added more than 100 new and redesigned emoji characters including a new water pistol emoji that will replace the existing one of a gun.
The soon-to-be-retired gun emoji was not specifically addressed; in a press release Apple talked about the “beautiful redesigns of popular emoji” that will be coming our way in September.
Rifle rejection
This comes shortly after Apple rejected a rifle emoji that was part of the proposed set of new characters to be released in 2017 as part of Unicode 9, the universal standard for the scripts, symbols and emoji we use in messaging.
Apple says it is working closely with the Unicode Consortium, the organisation behind the development and maintenance of these text-based standards, to promote gender-diverse emoji. They have already revealed several new sporty characters including surfing, biking, weight-lifting and basketball-playing female emoji as well as a new rainbow flag.
