Apple replaces gun emoji for water pistol and introduces 100 other characters

Apple has launched a series of more than 100 new and updated emojis.

It's replaced the gun with a water pistol and put out new designs it hopes will be more inclusive.

The company says it wants to "ensure that popular emoji characters reflect the diversity of people everywhere".

The new green and orange pistol emoji looks more like a toy and will replace the black and silver revolver, but some people have mocked the swap on Twitter.

Emoji on Apple products are designed by the Unicode consortium.

Watch a video of some of the changes.

It all comes after a series of high-profile shootings in America.

However, many people on Twitter have joked that switching a gun for a toy isn't "going to solve anything".

Andrea tweeted: Psst, Apple. I support nonviolence too, but replacing the pistol emoji with a water gun uh, doesn't make people less violent?

It may have been ridiculed on social media by some but anti-gun campaigners were delighted to see the change.

New Yorkers Against Gun Violence: Apple is replacing the pistol emoji with a toy gun. Our campaign played a role!

Apple say the changes are an "exciting update" and "brings more gender options to existing characters".

"[These include] new female athletes and professionals, beautiful redesigns of popular emoji, a new rainbow flag and more family options," it said.

This isn't the first time that Apple has diversified its collection of approved emojis.

Last year it released a range of skin tones for popular faces but received criticism that it used a very yellow colour for the Asian skin.

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