Twitter replaces pistol emoji with water gun

Twitter’s latest change comes as an update to its Twemoji which also features tweaks to 10 emoji designs.

Twitter’s pistol emoji is replaced by a water gun. (Twitter)

In a bid to fight the prevailing gun culture, Twitter has changed its "pistol" emoji to a bright green "water gun". This change is a part of the latest Twemoji 2.6 update. In addition to this, Twitter has tweaked a total of 10 emojis with the new update.

"It certainly seems like the days of realistic gun emoji designs are numbered, and it's quite likely that other vendors may follow suit in the near future. Maybe 2018 will indeed be the year of emoji convergence," Twitter said in its blog post.

Twitter is the latest to incorporate this change which was first followed by Apple in 2016, and later WhatsApp and Samsung also joined in. The previous pistol has now been replaced by a green water gun. Twitter's new move comes amid gun violence in the US which has seen a sudden spur of unfortunate events recently.

Twitter also made changes to emojis like the kitchen knife, crystal ball, alembic, magnifying glass, coat, eyes, smiling face with eyes and horns.

Twemoji 2.6 update is currently rolling out to users globally for the mobile app, website and Tweetdeck. At present, this update has reached iOS devices and will soon roll out to Android users as well.