Typing an accented O on a phone is quicker than on any computer, once you know the trick. There is no menu to open and no code to remember; you simply press and hold. This short guide covers the long press method on both iPhone and Android, plus the copy and paste fallback for the rarer characters.
The Long Press Trick
On both iPhone and Android, press and hold the O key on the on screen keyboard. After a moment a small row of accented variants appears above your finger: the acute Ó, grave Ò, circumflex Ô, tilde Õ, two dot Ö and stroke Ø versions among them. Slide to the one you want and release. That is the entire method.
Hold, slide, release. The same gesture works for every vowel, so once you have it for O you have it for A, E, I and U as well.
Getting The Capital
To produce a capital accented O, tap the shift key first so the keyboard is in uppercase, then press and hold the O. The popover will show the capital variants. This works the same way on both platforms.
Small Differences Between Platforms
The exact set of variants in the popover can differ slightly by keyboard app and by the languages you have enabled. Adding a language in your keyboard settings often expands the options, so if a mark you need is missing, enabling the relevant language usually brings it into the popover.
The Copy And Paste Fallback
The long press menu covers the common European accents, but not every character. For the macron Ō, the Vietnamese horned forms or the African dot below, the popover will not help. In those cases, open the finder in your browser, tap Copy on the character, and long press to paste it into your app.
The favourites shelf is especially handy on a phone. Star the characters you use most and they stay in one place, so you do not have to search on a small screen each time. The copy and paste guide has more on keeping the mark intact.
When The Character Will Not Paste
Some apps strip accents from certain fields, such as usernames, so a pasted Ó may revert to a plain O. That is a limit of the destination, not your phone. For normal text fields, messages and documents, the pasted character keeps its mark.
In Summary
On a phone, press and hold the O key, slide to the accent you want, and release. Tap shift first for capitals, enable a language to expand the options, and fall back to copying from the finder for the rarer characters. It is the fastest accent typing on any device.