Apple is to replace its controversial handgun emoji with a water pistol amid mounting concern over gun violence in the US and worldwide.

The move follows a series of deadly shootings in America, including the killing of two black men by police and the subsequent slaying of eight officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The country was already reeling after 49 people were shot dead at an Orlando gay nightclub in June.

Image: The emoji updates include a new rainbow flag

Apple's existing black and silver revolver emoji will be replaced by a far more benign-looking bright green water pistol with a white trigger, in September.

The change came as the tech giant unveiled more than 100 new and redesigned emoji characters.


Apple said in a statement: "This exciting update brings more gender options to existing characters, including new female athletes and professionals, adds beautiful redesigns of popular emoji, a new rainbow flag and more family options."

It said it had worked closely with the Unicode Consortium that handles the character standard, to "ensure that popular emoji characters reflect the diversity of people everywhere".

Apple had already taken steps to introduce more racially diverse emoticons, but ran into controversy amid claims some of its Asian emoji faces were too yellow.