If only Apple and Google engineers would understand that it's almost impossible to mistype A and Å on a qwerty-keyboard, it would be awesome.
However being half dane close to the german border and with a interest in language I do occasionally use other languages as well which results in me having 6 more active keyboards, and while I mostly toggle between Swedish, English and some occasional emoji it's quite a hassle to shift though half a dozen keyboards every other time.
Frankly because I work with Danes and Swedes all the time it’s usually enough to hold down A and O when I need to type å, ö, ø, etc. but I usually don’t type in those languages. It’s mostly for locations and the occasional translation.
This saves me the hassle of switching keyboards all the time, I just learned what long presses I need to use in the US International keyboard and can type even in German :)
I have all my keyboards set to querty though, so a language change is solely a spelling-correction change, not a layout change.
If someone knows how to disable that without switching off autocorrect altogether, I would be very glad to know.
i just long-press the letters if i really need an Umlaut, but generally i just type the normal one and use the suggestions to switch to the correct spelling.
Autocorrection is dependent on your keyboard btw. It might be a good idea to try a different ones. I haven't really had that issue since i've switched to GBoard, but i remember struggling with the same problem before as well.
Yes, the German QWERTZ layout has 3 dedicated keys for äöü. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/KB... (just left of the Enter key).
However, the virtual keyboard I'm currently writing ^W swiping this on does not have dedicated keys for them. I have to long-press [a] to get a popup with variants, including [ä].
There is an open issue for this over at the android issue tracker. https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/37104657
Interestingly all the Swedes I work with have their own solutions to the tilde problem. Some type the alt code while others use alternative keyboard configurations.
But I understand the frustration, I feel the same every time you boot up a new system or VM and it defaults to american layout, changing the keyboard layout from a unix prompt when you can't find i.e. - / : = is surprisingly hard.
I used to use svorak a5 about 10 years ago but eventually switched back to swedish qwerty since it was causing such confusion with coworkers.
I also switch to a right-handed mouse about 4-5 years ago for the same reason with the addition that ergonomic left handed mice are pretty much non-existent, it's mainly just standard two button mice which you flip the mouse buttons on.
Because, if you've ever looked at a keyboard with a Nordic layout, A and Å couldn't be further apart. It's like thinking you mistakenly typed L instead of A on an American keyboard.