How to use What3Words

It can be an unnerving experience discovering that you’re lost – or being unable to find your destination, which isn’t always the same thing.

Some people are better at following directions than others, while surroundings can change or appear different depending on anything from your perspective to ambient light levels.

It’s easy to take a wrong turn in congested areas, and rural postcodes may extend for several hundred yards in any direction, which doesn’t help you to find a particular gate or door.

Paper maps are often impractical, while digital tools like Google Maps and satnav systems are notorious for directing people somewhere in the vicinity of where they’re actually meant to be.

Surely there’s a more definitive way of identifying exact locations using your laptop, tablet or smartphone?

As it happens, there is. And it’s a British app called What3Words.

The whole world’s a stage.fish.wobble

A decade ago, the What3Words team mapped out the entire planet, splitting it into 57 trillion squares measuring ten feet in either direction.

A database of 40,000 words was used to randomly generate three-word titles for each square, with enough three-word combinations to give all 57 trillion squares a unique title.

Shorter and simpler words are used on land and in densely populated areas, whereas the middle of an ocean might use three relatively lengthy nouns.

Whether you find yourself marooned on a mountain ledge, wandering around an airport car park or midway down Oxford Street, What3Words can pinpoint your exact location using GPS.

It does this even if you don’t have a mobile signal or data allowance.

The three-word code assigned to this grid square can then be shared with other What3Words users – or saved onto your device, so you can find your way back here at a later date.

What3Words further simplifies the journey back to previously saved locations with a compass and distance counter.

Word on the street

Given its ability to identify precise locations in (often imprecise) outdoor environments, What3Words has been widely adopted by emergency services.

The vast majority of British emergency service agencies use it, and it’s been adopted by public bodies as far afield as Canada, Tasmania, Germany and Singapore.

If you’re with the AA or RAC, What3Words will give them your vehicle’s location almost instantly – and with unerring accuracy – while taxi companies are increasingly adopting it, too.

It’s also used by corporate and infrastructure agencies like Forestry England, Openreach, Network Rail and Amazon.

Most people use What3Words for more prosaic matters, such as locating friends at a festival, attending a new Parkrun event or helping delivery drivers navigate to rural addresses.

Indeed, it’s commonly incorporated into satnav systems. Manufacturers using built-in What3Words navigation include Land Rover and Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz and MG.

You can also add photos to locations, attaching your perspective to that particular ten-foot square radius – ideal when designating meeting points for social or sporting activities.

Did you say right or write?

Of course, no digital system is infallible.

What3Words attempts not to use any homophones, but issues have arisen relating to people mispronouncing words in phone calls, or those words being misheard by others.

There’s no height acknowledgement, so you won’t know which floor of a multi-storey car park to be on, for instance.

Although it’s extremely rare for a written location to be incorrect, it has been reported in the past.

However, as a free and easy-to-use service with no adverts or obligations placed on end users, What3Words remains a compelling tool.

It’s an app most of us should install onto our smartphones in case of emergencies.