The important reason behind Microsoft replacing its gun emoji with a water pistol in Windows

Amid heightening sensitivity over a series of gun violence incidents in the US, Microsoft on Thursday announced that it was changing the gun emoji, replacing with a water pistol following Google and Facebook.

Microsoft on Twitter posted a preview of the emoji and wrote: We are in the process of evolving our emojis to reflect our values and the feedback we’ve received.

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

The company plans to bring this emoji in the next Windows 10 update later this year. The recent update did not incorporate any change in the emoji.

Google and Facebook, earlier on Thursday, also ditched the gun emoji it offered to adopt the water pistol emoji.

Apple, WhatsApp, Samsung, and Twitter have already replaced their gun emoji with variations of the water pistols in recent years. This left only Microsoft among major technology giant to not have made any changes.

In the recent months, after a series of massive shootings in schools as well as public places in the US, the debate over gun violence has intensified.

Hundreds of thousands of students in the US marched in the capital city last month to protest against the spate of shootings and demanded a change in lax gun laws of the country.