Microsoft Outlook on Mobile Keeps adding Water Pistol Emojis when opened on Outlook

Question

Microsoft Outlook on Mobile Keeps adding Water Pistol Emojis when opened on Outlook

Yasmeen Hussein 25

We’re experiencing an issue with Outlook where a 🔫 water pistol emoji is being displayed at the end of emails sent by one particular user.

The emoji has not been intentionally added by the sender and does not appear to be part of their email/signature.

The key issue is that the emoji appears when the email is viewed in the Outlook mobile app, but does not appear when the same email is viewed in Outlook on desktop/web - it appears as ☐ on Outlook on desktop, but can't be deleted and is not being included intentionally. Could you please advise what might be causing this and how we can remove/stop the emoji from appearing?

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Answer 1

Kristen Tran 2,040 Independent Advisor

Hi Yasmeen,

Based on the behavior you've described, the issue appears to be related to a hidden Unicode character or HTML element being added to the email content. Although it is displayed as a 🔫 emoji in the Outlook mobile app, Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web appear unable to render the character correctly and therefore display it as a square placeholder (☐).

Since the issue is occurring only with emails sent by one specific user, I would recommend the following troubleshooting steps:

1/ Test without the user's email signature

Create a new email and remove the signature entirely.
Send a simple plain-text message.
Check whether the emoji still appears on mobile devices.

2/ Recreate the signature

If the emoji disappears when the signature is removed, delete the existing signature and recreate it from scratch rather than copying content from the current version.
Hidden formatting or unsupported characters can sometimes remain embedded in signature HTML even when they are not visible.

3/ Check for server-side signatures or disclaimers

If your organization uses Exchange mail flow rules or a third-party signature management solution, an administrator should verify whether any disclaimer, footer, or signature is being appended to outbound messages after they are sent.

4/ Compare Sent Items and received messages

Review the affected email in the sender's Sent Items folder and compare it with the received copy.
If the character is not present in Sent Items but appears after delivery, this would suggest that it is being introduced by a mail flow rule or other server-side process.

5/ Inspect the original message source

If available, save an affected message as an .eml file and inspect the message source for any unusual characters or HTML elements near the end of the email body.

I hope this helps point you in the right direction. Please let me know the results of the signature test, or whether your organization uses any email disclaimer/signature solutions, and I'll be happy to investigate further.

Kind regards.

Kristen Tran 2,040 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-22T13:02:42.7566667+00:00

Hi Yasmeen,

Have you had a chance to review the information provided? Any updates would be greatly appreciated.
Chris Held 5 Reputation points

2026-09-22T15:47:50.7833333+00:00
We had something similar at our company today as well. One of our employees sent an email that in iOS Outlook preview showed the water pistol. Depending upon how the message is being read, the character shows up differently. Here are the different scenarios and what people see in the message:

IOS Outlook message preview - green water pistol

IOS Outlook read message - invalid character symbol similar to 

Windows Outlook message preview - filled in star

Windows Outlook read message - invalid character symbol similar to 
Yasmeen Hussein 25 Reputation points

2026-09-22T16:35:11.5766667+00:00

@Kristen Tran Thank you so much for this, it has now been resolved - very much appreciated.
Kristen Tran 2,040 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-23T13:40:58.78+00:00

Hi Yasmeen,

Thank you for coming back to share the outcome.

I'm pleased to hear that the issue has now been resolved.

I also wanted to thank you for taking the time to mark my answer as accepted. I truly appreciate it, as it helps other community members quickly find a solution if they encounter a similar issue in the future.

If any other questions come up, please don't hesitate to post again. Ill be happy to help.

Kind regards.
Kristen Tran 2,040 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-23T13:47:16.64+00:00
Hi Chris,

Thank you for sharing these additional observations.

The behavior you're seeing across iOS and Windows clients is very consistent with a hidden character or formatting element being rendered differently by different Outlook clients and fonts. The fact that the symbol appears as a water pistol in some views, a filled star in others, and as  in message content suggests that the same underlying character may be interpreted differently depending on the client.

Could you please try the troubleshooting steps outlined in my earlier post and let me know the results?

Send a simple plain-text email with no signature.

Test after temporarily removing the user's signature.

Compare the message in Sent Items with the received copy.

Check whether any Exchange mail flow rules, disclaimers, or third-party signature solutions are modifying outbound messages.

If possible, save an affected message as an .eml file and inspect the message source for any unusual characters near the end of the message body.

The results of those tests should help determine whether the character is being introduced by the email content itself, the signature, or a server-side process.

Please let me know what you find, and if you encounter any issues while performing the tests, I'd be happy to take a closer look.

Kind regards.
Chris Held 5 Reputation points

2026-09-23T16:25:53.7133333+00:00

I feel like I'm hijacking Yasmeen's thread so will try to minimize going off track! The employee who sent the email is out until Thursday. I am going to check with them tomorrow and will report back here.
Kristen Tran 2,040 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-23T18:21:16.9233333+00:00

Hi Chris,

Thank you for following up, and I look forward to your update. If you have any questions in the meantime, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm happy to assist.