It does not really matter WHERE on the keyboard the key is.
It's just certain symbols.
For example, on my German keyboard, ^ and ° are on the same key, and ° works fine while ^ doesn't.
So I can write °-° without problems, while ^-^ is not working.

Well, that's actually not true.
^ IS working, but it's hard to get it to work. You have to press the key for 2-3 seconds instead of just touching it for a moment.
If you do that, something between ^^^^^ and ^^^^^^^^^^^ shows up.
You can delete as many as you wish so you have only left what you need for your smiley.


But really, I hope they fix this, it's annoying and takes longer than usual.