Earlier this week, Apple made headlines when it changed the iOS 10 “pistol” emoji from a real gun to a harmless green water pistol.
The change, which came amid a larger shift towards more diverse emoji showcasing equality, was seen as a political statement against the gun violence epidemic in the United States.
However, with the release of the Windows 10 Anniversary update this year, Microsoft has taken a somewhat different stance.
In fact it has taken the opposite stance, by switching its toy gun to an actual pistol.
Related: Windows 10 Anniversary Edition review
However, when quizzed by Business Insider, Microsoft said it isn’t going all overtly pro-gun to counter Apple, it’s simply trying to fit in with everyone else.
“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,” a spokesperson said.
“We will continue to work with the Unicode Consortium to refine and update glyphs that reflects customer needs, feedback and supports a consistent system that works across the digital world.”
Shame. An Apple vs Microsoft fight over the Second Amendment of the US Constitution would have been far more entertaining than Mac vs PC.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.