It has been discovered that X or Twitter has changed the emoji gun icon from a water gun back to a short gun. This alteration took place on July 18, 2024, which coincided with World Emoji Day. The modification impacts the Twemoji emoji set, visible only on the web version of X. Therefore, this change will not be seen on Android or iOS devices that use system emoji.
While emoji details changes are common, the switch from a gun icon seems somewhat unusual. Looking back, the gun emoji has been in use for a while, but there has been a trend to reduce the promotion of violence. This trend started with Apple switching to a water gun icon in 2016, followed by X (then known as Twitter) adopting the same idea with a water gun icon in Twemoji 2.6 in 2018. Twitter’s decision prompted Google and Microsoft to announce similar changes shortly after.
The Twitter emoji gun icon change also led Unicode to redefine the emoji, originally only described as “Pistol,” to include “Water Pistol.”
X has yet to provide an explanation for this change.
Source: Emojipedia
TLDR: X or Twitter changed the emoji gun icon back to a short gun from a water gun, impacting Twemoji on the web version only. This change does not affect Android or iOS devices. The move follows a trend to reduce the promotion of violence in emoji icons.
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