what3words: Navigation & Maps
August 20, 2024
More About what3words: Navigation & Maps
Use what3words to:
- Help emergency services know exactly where to find you - especially in hard to describe locations or places with inaccurate addresses
- Plan exact meet-up locations, simplifying navigation for you and others
- Give car breakdown services your precise location
- Navigate to any destination easily
- Save your favorite memorable spots so you know how to navigate back to them - a viewpoint, waterfall or proposal location
- Save key locations, from incident reporting to delivery entrances
- Help people find your business or Airbnb - perfect for travelers tired of relying on inaccurate street addresses
- Help people navigate to accessible entrances
Help others find and navigate to you
what3words addresses are accepted by over 4,800 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Centers from across the United States, helping first responders locate and navigate to you easily and quickly. Businesses and hotels display what3words on their contact pages and booking confirmations - anywhere you would normally find location information: on maps, in guidebooks and more.
Discover your favorite new location app
Popular features:
- Find your current what3words address offline
- Compatible with other navigation and map apps, including Google Maps and Apple Maps
- Save your favorite locations and categorize them into lists
- AutoSuggest prompts you with intelligent suggestions
- Available in over 50 languages
- Navigate offline with Compass mode
- Add a what3words address to a photo
- Wear OS support for smartwatch navigation
More accurate than street addresses, simpler than GPS coordinates
Street addresses and postcodes aren’t accurate enough to specify exact locations - for navigation, deliveries and more. what3words is a more precise way to do so - and it’s also a more accessible way to communicate location information than latitude/longitude coordinates or GPS - in short, it’s a simple ‘geocode’.
Navigate adventures, big and small
Offline navigation and compatibility with your favorite map apps - like Google Maps, Apple Maps and more - make what3words the perfect tool for daily trips and bigger adventures.
- Walking somewhere unfamiliar? Use what3words to navigate to your precise destination stress-free
- Find the perfect camping spot - and remember how to find it later - by saving the what3words location
- Meetups made simple: help others find hiking trailheads, shop car parks, precise entrances and more by sharing the what3words location
- Navigation couldn’t be easier with the what3words Compass, which guides you straight to where you need to be
If you experience any problems or have any questions, email us at [email protected]
Latest Version
August 20, 2024
what3words
Internet
Android
37,156,826
Free
com.what3words.android
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User Reviews
Paul-Georges (Paul)
10 months ago
What3words is brilliantly ingenious and intuitive. Its unique three-word address system makes pinpointing locations effortless, even in remote areas. This app has proven life-saving in emergencies, showcasing the power of cutting-edge technology for practical and humanitarian use. An essential tool for modern navigation and safety. Well-done to the developpers...
Emil Cannard
9 months ago
Crazy amount of unnecessary notifications. It's a map app. Sit down and be quiet. I certainly did mute all notifications but I don't think I should have to. Calm down. You are map for niche or emergency situations. Be quiet. Edited to 1 star after actually trying to use it to get to a location, uninstalled . Terrible. Endless notifications and "tutorials" but it won't just navigate you to the location. I'm impressed with how bad this simple idea has been managed. Someone should lose their jobs.
Corvus Raven
9 months ago
An interesting way to show where you are or where you're going. Over all, a good way to communicate a location. A feature I'd like is selecting via window or line, multiple locations for marking areas of interest larger than a few squares. Because you can easily delete what you've selected, far easier than it took to select them in the first place.
Paul Douglass
2 years ago
As a (very retired) surveyor, those advocating GPS are, of course, quite correct about accuracy, widespread use etc. BUT, I very rarely carry my mobile phone and wouldn't have a chance of remembering my GPS coordinates. I CAN remember 3 words and it is much easier to use. If someone else tells me their GPS coordinates, at my age (in 80th year) I would also forget them quickly. I stand a much better chance of remembering 3 words.
Aasim Inshirah
3 years ago
Brilliant idea! I've used what3words for years and can say that this app ranks as one of the most useful I've ever used. I've not only been able to geo-tag interesting locations to revisit, but I've also been able to save and navigate to locations not listed on Google Maps. I've sent links to friends who've been able to meet me at a parking lot or a specific entrance of a building. I'm currently working with authors and historians to locate the gravesite of the legendary US Marshall Bass Reeves in Muskogee, Oklahoma. I've proposed the use of your technology to facilitate visitations by those wanting to pay their respects. Thank you for the AMAZING work that your team does.
Brook Dickinson
2 years ago
Although the idea of utilizing the 3 unique words for lists of waypoints when mapping out routes or trips and linking to in notes or sharing seems like a great idea. Unfortunately this workflow is not well thought out and the app reflects that. This is not a good mapping application. The base maps cannot be used to navigate as they lack detail of roads and trails. You have to be zoomed in so far to choose a square that your cannot tell where your are choosing. The app UI blocks the map + more..
A Google user
6 years ago
Amazing. I have a quibble with the word choices but assume it's too late to change. Would have been better if only NOUNS were used and avoiding words that end with -s, -ed, -ing, etc. since app doesn't recognize them unless you speak VERY clearly. Aside from that, a GREAT App and a GREAT idea. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!
A Google user
5 years ago
There are a lot of apps out there that kind of do the same thing. This app stands head and shoulders above the other utlities. The easy three-word locator is a must-have for a parent, loved one, workforce, school or any other not for profit. Super simple to coordinate a meeting place or locate individuals in distress. The only three words I can leave you with at this point is "download it now". Happy trails everyone. Gratitude is the attitude.
Nick Ryman
4 years ago
I do Search And Rescue as well as recovering vehicles stuck in the woods and down trails. This app works phenomenally when subjects can't accurately describe where rescue is needed. A pin dropped on a map then screenshot can be misleading if everything looks the same (like a flat 100 acre forest). With what3words there is no mistake.
A Google user
5 years ago
I like it but the interface needs work. When I touch any square a giant white box that takes up 1/4 of the screen pops up at the bottom. This should be a narrow, horizontal band at the bottom. There is no reason to take up so much map space just for 3 menu choices (Navigate, Share, Save).
John Spitznagel
3 years ago
Neat idea, but doesn't really do anything more than GPS. With smart phones, it's easy enough to send a GPS link. Just press and hold on Google maps and click share. GPS is also the standard for location pinpointing, and is easily transferable to other devices that aren't "smart." Look into Geocaching if you think you can't share an accurate location with a friend. In addition, most of the locations I picked do not have short words, making it even more cumbersome.
A Google user
5 years ago
Cool app, but constantly crashing on Android 10, while running in the background. Come to think of it, i didnt even open the app after updating my phone, so what's it trying to do without permission? Hmmmm. Update: new version reduces the frequency, but still crashes. Still running in the background when i haven't opened the app. Uninstalled.
Axel Stevens
2 years ago
App stopped working all-together. Matter fact, just started crashing randomly in the background without me ever opening it. It was a bit frustrating at first, but what finally got me to write this review is learning that this app used 10 Gigabytes of data in the background without me even being able to open it. I cannot imagine how such a simple app can use this much data WITHOUT EVEN BEING USED.
J
3 years ago
Brilliant, simple to use, VERY HELPFUL!! This is a simple app that does exactly what it is meant to do. Google Maps will never tell you the exact location of your friends in a crowd at a festival, at the beach, hiking, at a campground, in a parking lot, in a mall, in a bar, in a warehouse store, or outside a store (which side are you on, etc). The people saying this is too hard to figure out need to get away from all technology, because this app is stupid simple to use! I LOVE THIS APP!!!
A Google user
5 years ago
Aside from finding places based purely on fanciful word combinations (duck.duck.goose for example), im using this app as the developer intended. Living in a rural locale presents difficulties city-folk don't experience, like trying to get a package delivered, or an ambulance to your home. What3words solves this issue. Two thumbs up to the developers!!!
A Google user
6 years ago
Once you figure out how to use the app it is truly amazing! The idea of a grid system is almost magical and it works better than anything I have seen so far. There are two things that I would like to see changed: 1. Measurement in miles vs kilometers at least for North America 2. The ability to sort the saved locations by title. Even just having them in alphabetical order or being able to slide them into the position you want them to hold on the list would be a real time saver, especially when you are on the road. Finally, I look forward to great things from the minds of those who designed both the scheme and the app. Thank you very much.
Henry Farkas
3 years ago
This is an amazing app. I can designate a place in the app and then navigate to the place. It asks which app I want to use for navigation. I designate my Tesla app, and the location gets sent to my car. Since w3w works anywhere in the world, you can use it for finding underwater shipwrecks, places in the jungle, or any point of interest even if it doesn't have a street address.
A Google user
5 years ago
I thought this was a great app and a valuable thing to have on my phone. However, over the past few days, despite my not having used it, I'm nearly constantly getting a pop-up that says "what3words keeps stopping". I've written the developer but have not received any response. I hate to uninstall this, but its popping up every minute or two, which is decimating my ability to use my phone for anything useful without interruption. I hope I hear and get remedy from the developers very, very soon.
James Boyette
9 months ago
Very simple to use, just a short learning period. Once you grasp the concept of the random words, the app is INDISPENSABLE!! Outstanding to locate, find and meet people at large events, such as parks, Disney, outdoor venues, etc. Excellent for elderly or tech challenged people to use
Isaiah Halder
9 months ago
It is honestly a very cool app. I found it out my AP Human Geography textbook and decided to check it out. I played around and found random places in the Congo and Brazil. Only thing was it kep moving my location around when I was moving. It sometimes was one or two houses off. Overall amazing and creative app.
