Google has become the latest firm to change its gun emoji to resemble a water pistol, falling in line with most other platforms, including Apple, Samsung, WhatsApp and Twitter.

Amid a particularly fervent period in the US anti-gun movement, led by the Floridian students of Stoneman Douglas high school caught up in a mass shooting earlier this year, users of Google-owned products and services will soon see the gun emoji rendered as a bright orange water pistol. That includes smartphones updated to the upcoming Android 9.0 “P” due for release in May.

Apple first transformed its gun emoji from a realistic looking silver revolver into a green water pistol in 2016 after a succession of high-profile US shootings and pressure from activists, to a mostly positive response (“not political correctness gone mad; smart”, was one Guardian writer’s opinion).

However, users also pointed out that the unilateral change could cause problematic confusion when Apple’s iOS users sent a water-pistol emoji, which when viewed by other mobile users would still appear as a lifelike gun. The problem was exacerbated when, at the same time as Apple’s water pistol was introduced, Microsoft moved in the opposite direction, changing its zap-gun style into a realistic revolver. At the time the company said: “Our intent with every glyph is to align with the global Unicode standard, and the previous design did not map to industry designs or our customers’ expectations of the emoji definition.”

Speaking on the Emoji Wrap podcast in 2016, Google’s product manager Agustin Fonts was also hesitant about shifting to a water pistol to remain “as compatible with other systems as possible”.

Emojis are approved by the Unicode Consortium, the industry body which oversees software standards and developments, but tech platforms are at liberty to introduce their own designs of approved glyphs.

Apple’s standalone shift has become less problematic however, with WhatsApp following its lead in 2017 and swapping the gun for a toy rendition, and Samsung and Twitter making the change in 2018. Facebook has announced that it will also make the switch across the remainder of its products soon.

In 2016, a hunting rifle emoji proposed by the Unicode Consortium as part of an Olympic Games set was shot down, with efforts led by Apple and Microsoft. Unicode Consortium president Mark Davis said that “there was consensus to remove them”, while a Gun Control Network spokesperson said: “All those who have been traumatised by gun threats and gun violence will be grateful for this significant gesture of respect and support.”

Despite its opposition to the rifle emoji however, Microsoft remains the most prominent mainstream tech company to have not changed the revolver to a water-pistol emoji, nor commented on any plans to.

A bomb, knife and swords remain part of current emoji sets.

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