Google has announced that in the next few days the gun emoji on Android will change, turning into a more harmless water gun. The choice – which concerns the most popular smartphone operating system in the world and therefore hundreds of millions of people – comes about two years after a similar decision taken by Apple, the first company to have replaced a revolver with a water pistol. in the emoji set for its operating systems (iOS for iPhone and iPad, macOS for computers).
At the time, the choice did not go unnoticed and was seen as a political decision by Apple against violence, especially in a country like the United States where shootings are very common. Apple's decision two years ago caused a (slow) domino effect that will lead all major manufacturers of operating systems, online services and social networks to adopt the water gun by the end of the year. Although it may seem like a small thing, the change tells a lot about how large companies, especially in the technological field, influence each other and how they manage pressure from their users.
Emojis are decided by the Unicode Consortium, the non-profit organization that maintains a common standard system for writing characters on computer systems. Periodically, the consortium decides which emoji will become the standard for those who build operating systems, who then have the right to adapt by introducing new symbols with their own graphics that respect a series of guidelines. It is for this reason that an emoji on Android looks graphically different from one on iOS, even if they represent the same thing. Manufacturers keep an eye on each other, in order to offer designs that reflect their graphics, while still trying not to confuse users.
When in 2016 Apple decided to go its own way by radically changing the gun emoji, many said they were skeptical and against it precisely because there would be communication problems between users. A water pistol jokingly sent in a message from iOS would have been seen as a normal and threatening weapon on Android. In 2016, Google said it was not convinced of that choice, precisely because it wanted to avoid confusion and compatibility problems between the various systems.
Things have changed in the last year, also following the decision of other manufacturers. Last fall, for example, WhatsApp unveiled a new set of custom emojis, to be used within its Android app instead of the standard operating system emojis. The new designs are very similar to Apple's and designed to reduce differences and any communication problems. WhatsApp therefore adopted the water gun, albeit using a different color, effectively making it arrive on Android well before Google started working on a new icon for its default emojis.
After WhatsApp, Samsung also thought it was time to imitate its main competitor in the smartphone market, namely Apple. At the beginning of the year, along with the presentation of the new Galaxy S9, it introduced a water pistol. Twitter did the same thing earlier this month, ditching the revolver and choosing a water pistol with a design that is very reminiscent of the one presented by Apple two years ago.
After Apple, WhatsApp, Samsung and Twitter, it became clear that the standard was changing and that it could be Android's traditional gun causing confusion. For this reason, Google has chosen to replace it, switching to the water one. However, the domino effect has not stopped and, following the announcement by Google, it has undergone a further acceleration in the last few hours. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed that the gun will soon be replaced by the water gun on its social network, reflecting the choices of other manufacturers.
Only Microsoft was left with the old design, so yesterday many asked on social networks if the company had any plans to change the emoji. After some initial no comments, Microsoft finally announced that it was working to replace the gun, bringing the water gun to Windows as well. The case of Microsoft is however particular, because in reality it had decided even before Apple not to use a normal revolver. As early as 2013, so three years before Apple, Microsoft had adopted a laser beam gun, like those in science fiction films. The emoji had remained the same for a few years, until 2016 when the company decided to align its icon with that of others, excluding Apple, by returning to the normal gun.
We are in the process of evolving our emojis to reflect our values and the feedback we've received. Here's a preview: pic.twitter.com/BlB3yYTSht
– Microsoft (@Microsoft) April 25, 2018
For political reasons, for reasons of competition or more trivial compatibility, depending on the case, by the end of the year the gun emoji will have disappeared from almost all operating systems and online services, replaced by a water gun.
