{"id":237057,"date":"2016-08-05T16:19:21","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T16:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=237057"},"modified":"2016-08-05T16:19:21","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T16:19:21","slug":"apple-urged-to-rethink-gun-emoji-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=237057","title":{"rendered":"Apple urged to rethink gun emoji change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple has been urged to rethink its plan to convert the handgun emoji symbol into a water pistol icon.<\/p>\n

The Emojipedia website argued that the symbol could still appear as a lifelike gun in messages sent to non-iOS users.<\/p>\n

Apple made the change in the wake of a series of shootings in the US.<\/p>\n

However, Microsoft announced this week that its toy gun symbol would be redesigned as a more realistic-looking firearm.<\/p>\n

The emoji character system allows companies to use slightly different designs of the same basic objects, signs or expressions.<\/p>\n

Confusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The thing is, emojis already look different on different platforms and it does cause confusion,” Jeremy Burge, editor of Emojipedia, told the BBC.<\/p>\n

“When we’re dealing with guns and toys as a comparison, that’s a whole new level of problems that we have there.”<\/p>\n

In his blog, Mr Burge pointed out that someone could send a message from an iOS device mentioning a water pistol – but that this could look like they were asking the recipient to bring a real weapon if that user did not have iOS.<\/p>\n

\"Messages<\/span><\/figure>\n

The water pistol emoji, along with several other new icons, is available to a few users testing iOS 10, which will be more widely available in the autumn.<\/p>\n

“Apple has the most prominent emoji set that people use,” said Mr Burge. “I think it has a high responsibility to be a bit cautious.”<\/p>\n

He has suggested that the firm could simply hide gun emojis from the keyboard altogether, instead of redesigning them.<\/p>\n

\"Jeremy<\/span><\/figure>\n

Mr Burge added that he had emailed Apple about the issue but had not yet received a reply.<\/p>\n

There was further criticism from web users, but a columnist in the Guardianpraised the move as a statement on gun control.<\/p>\n

“It’s a smart, small part in the battle – which we’re presently losing – to keep Americans safe,” wrote Jean Hannah Edelstein.<\/p>\n

There have been calls previously – including from a campaign called Disarm the iPhone – to remove the handgun icon from iOS devices.<\/p>\n

\"Emoji<\/span><\/figure>\n

While the merits of Apple’s decision continued to be the subject of debate, Microsoft announced that it was converting a toy ray gun emoji into a more realistic-looking handgun.<\/p>\n

In a blog, the company said it felt its emojis needed to feel “more human, more personal, more expressive”.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the gun icon specifically, Microsoft told tech site Engadget: “The previous design did not map to industry designs or our customers’ expectations of the emoji definition.”<\/p>\n

Both Apple and Microsoft have said they are working with the Unicode Consortium – the body that maintains lists of emojis across different platforms.<\/p>\n

In June, the consortium confirmed that a planned rifle emoji had been dropped\u00a0from a series of new icons.<\/p>\n

Buzzfeed reported that this was at the request of both Microsoft and Apple.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple has been urged to rethink its plan to convert the handgun emoji symbol into a water pistol icon. The Emojipedia website argued that the symbol could still appear as a lifelike gun in messages sent to non-iOS users. Apple made the change in the wake of a series of shootings in the US. However, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":237059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/237059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=237057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=237057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}