Google Maps is the primary navigation app for the majority in India. However, with India’s expanding road network and increasing population density in urban areas, Google Maps can sometimes be very unreliable. So, what to do when Google Maps fails you? Well, there’s a solution from UK-based What3Words.
Yes, the name ‘What3Words’ may sound a bit unusual for a navigation platform but it’s true to what it actually does. You can find the exact location and navigate to the location by searching with “three words”. How? The What3words platform has marked the entire world map into 3m x 3m squares and has tagged all possible GPS coordinates of Earth with three unique words. For example, if you type “straddled.sprayer.sponsors” on the search box of What3Words website or app, it will directly take you to the precise entrance of the Taj Mahal. And if you want your friends to meet at the entrance of the Taj Mahal, all you need to do is share these 3 words– “straddled.sprayer.sponsors”– with them.
Now, the next big question is, how will you remember these 3 words for every location? Well, technically you don’t need to do that. At the most, you need to remember the 3 words for your home or office so that you can share with your Uber driver, friends and others.
While Google Maps looks like the ultimate navigation app, in reality it just gives a bird’s eye view. Now, going back to the same Taj Mahal example, the entrance of the Taj Mahal has the GPS coordinates: 27.174528, 78.047806. To make your friends meet at this exact spot, you will have to share this GPS coordinate. It goes without saying that using GPS coordinates everyday is not possible. This is where What3Words comes in. It replaces these GPS coordinates with three unique words.
What3Words CEO Chris Sheldrick clarified that his company is in no way competing with Google Maps or any other mapping company. What3Words is simply an additional layer on top of these existing mapping services to make the experience better and accurate for end users.
What3Words has already partnered with courier companies like BlueDart, DTDC along with car brands like Tata Motors and Mahindra. It is absolutely free for consumers and all you need to do is just download the app or access the What3Words website.
“In India, addresses are slotted under pin codes, which are associated with delivery post offices. These cover very broad areas with the chances of street names being duplicated or incorrect. This makes it difficult for customers to specify precisely where a delivery needs to be made, and for delivery drivers to find exactly where they need to go. These are issues what3words has been designed to solve,” according to BlueDart.
What3Words is also available offline in 54 languages, including 12 South Asian languages: Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, Nepali, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Punjabi and Odia.
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