Location App - what3words

I haven't actually used it but it has been around for a few years now. I recently read a book on interesting day trips around a number of Paris' arrondisement, and the addresses were given as what3words as well as normal addresses. It seems such a strange concept for this older traveler, but supposedly, it is meant to be quite exact. It is also easier, to say 3 words, that run off a number of GPS coordinate numbers - particularly if in pain or in danger.

Was discussed on this very Forum 3 months ago.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/scotland/what3words-e7903c05-dfb6-4ebe-90a4-c3da40d6987c

Yeah, I've seen it a lot, too, and actually have downloaded the app on my phone to use if when I travel.

I've found a lot of places in Scotland use it. When I was looking for a car park at Fionnphort, it gave me a What3words location.

I found what3Words to be absolutely useless. I'm an avid geocacher and I've used W3W to create location puzzles. But as an everyday method of getting to a location while traveling abroad, I think it's useless. I'd rather have Latitude and Longitude coordinates. Since you have to have a smart phone to use W3W, you'd have your smartphone on you, so if you got injured on some remote trail but have cellphone or text access, why not use the compass app see what your latitutde and longitude coordinates are and relay that to your rescuers?

As for using for travel abroad, what are you going to say? "Hi, I'm at bolts.pens.ranged. (Look it up on W3W and tell me where I am) Can you tell me how to get to your hotel?" And could you do it in Spanish or French?

While traveling in major cities, Apple Maps (with Siri) and Google Maps are my go to apps for directions.

It works well as long as the words are conveyed correctly - the way they are randomised means even a slight error will place you thousands of miles off target. It does have a built in suggestion element, but that only works if the first word is accurate and you have location switched on

It can be useful but I wouldn't use it alone, as I wouldn't use any method for my safety alone

It is also easier, to say 3 words, that run off a number of GPS coordinate numbers - particularly if in pain or in danger.

That is the whole raison d'etra - mainly that the human brain can (usually) memorize and accurately transcribe or transmit 3 words much more easily than a string of 10 digit numbers.

The point is not to use it to replace GPS, it's to be used as a shorthand for communicating to GPS when "meatspace" or other non-digital media is in between two GPS domains. If you're going to list your location on a website, or send them digitally via SMS, you might as well send the actual GPS coordinates.

If, however, you need to communicate your location to someone verbally, or with signage, I defy you to accurately communicate it and transcribe it efficiently, on the first try, to the same precision as w3w. Some people might post a QR code with a link to GPS coordinates, but security-conscious folks will never scan a random QR code, while a w3w query is safe.

"Just give an address" is the usual reply in the western world, which is not a crazy idea if the location is simply identified and either (a) easily navigable or (b) readily transcribed into mapping software, but both of these things go out the window in a lot of travel destinations.

For example, if I hand you a piece of paper that reads "廟口「老吃雞」 鹹水雞", could you walk there from a half mile away? Probably not, given how difficult it would be to enter those characters onto your phone.

How about if I called you on the phone and said "Meet me at the Dongmen Street traffic circle, North District, Hsinchu City, Taiwan 300" instead? Maybe you can transcribe that and find it in google maps.

But "lock.boot.passages" will definitely get you there.

For these reasons, I'd actually like to see w3w standardized and available in more applications. In my offroad camping/travel community in remote areas, we often have (Ham) radio and GPS connectivity, but lack cellphone/data connection. We do often have to resort to giving a long string of numbers over a sketchy radio connection when trying to relay an exact location. If my portable GPS had a w3w-enabled dictionary built in (and I could assume the same for my friends), this would eliminate a major source of error.