Bye-bye gun emoji! Hello water pistol!

Cape Town – Who needs words anymore?

Apple announced on Monday that more than 100 new emoji characters will be available on iPhone and iPad with the iOS10 upgrade coming soon.

The new emojis will have more gender options that will include female athletes and professionals as well as more family options and a new rainbow flag.

In a statement released on their website on Monday Apple said they are “working closely with the Unicode Consortium to ensure that popular emoji characters reflect the diversity of people everywhere”.

One change that is sparking online conversation is the decision to replace the hand gun emoji with a water pistol amid concerns over America’s gun crimes.

According to The Guardian the new plastic pistol emoji is designed to look more harmless and will be available to use in September. The publication contacted Apple for comment but a spokesperson declined to give an official statement on the decision to drop the hand gun emoji. 

This is not the first time Apple has taken a stance against guns in the emoji world. According to BuzzFeed the American multinational technology company voted against plans to add a riffle emoji earlier this year.

"According to sources in the room, Apple started the discussion to remove the rifle emoji, which had already passed into the encoding process for the Unicode 9.0 release this June. Apple told the consortium it would not support a rifle on its platforms and asked for it not to be made into an emoji," BuzzFeed reported.

Here's a look at some of the new emojis:

(Images: Unicode Consortium/Apple)