Last week, GRAB, the Mumbai-based last-mile logistics company, partnered with location technology platform what3words. GRAB’s business partners—restaurants, online grocers, offline and online retail commerce, kirana stores, pharmacies, etc—can add a what3words field for customers to use at checkout. Once entered, the what3words address is passed on to GRAB riders, so they can navigate to delivery destinations.
But what is what3words and how does it work?
Co-founded in London in 2013 by Chris Sheldrick, what3words has divided the world into a grid of 3 metre by 3 metre squares, and given each square a unique combination of three random words: a what3words address assigned by a mathematical algorithm.
Customers can discover their what3words address via the free what3words app (available for iOS and Android) or the online map at what3words.com. For example, ///lamppost.label.stand will take you to the perfect spot to take a photo of the iconic Gateway of India in South Mumbai. Similarly, ///warmers.shunning.head will take you precisely to the India Gate viewpoint in New Delhi. Unlike many other location platforms, what3words can also work offline.
Sheldrick recently told FE that, in India, street names are often duplicated, addresses can be confusing, PIN codes cover broad areas, and many areas don’t have addresses at all. This makes it difficult for customers to specify precisely where a delivery needs to be made, and for delivery drivers to find where they need to go. “These are the issues what3words has been designed to solve,” he said. “We don’t aim to replace street addressing, but it is a useful addition when street addresses are not accurate enough.”
But why do you need it when there is Google Maps?
Google Maps is a tool for navigation, public transport and for looking up points of interest. Sheldrick said what3words has a very different function, i.e. it is an easy way to communicate exact locations, whether that’s spoken over the phone or into a car voice navigation system, or typed into a taxi app or a website checkout page.
In addition, dropping a pin on to Google Maps isn’t useful if you would like to revisit or share that location weeks after you see it, if you need to share it with someone over a phone call, or enter it into an address field.
Sheldrick said that even though you can’t yet enter a 3-word address directly into Google Maps, you can find a 3-word address on the what3words app or website and navigate there via Google Maps.
Why three words, and are these unique?
To make what3words precise enough to refer to an entrance or parking spot, it needed to be accurate to a 3-metre square. Sheldrick said this meant 57 trillion addresses to cover the world, and three words allowed his team to create 64 trillion addresses, covering the entire world with quite a few spare. If they had used only two words, they would have had enough only for 1.6 billion squares. Also, what3words addresses are fixed and will never change, and that is how it works offline. Typically, shorter words are found in cities and more populated areas, while longer words are used in remote areas of the world and oceans.
While these are unique, there can be similar-sounding combinations. To minimise confusion, similar word combinations are placed far apart on the globe. For example, ///table.chair.lamp is located in New South Wales, Australia, whereas ///tables.chair.lamp is in Minnesota, USA.
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There are what3words addresses in 54 languages to date.
It began operations in India in 2019, and is available in many automotive navigation systems built by Mahindra, TVS Motor, Triumph Motorcycles, Tata Motors and Mercedes-Benz, apart from various companies in other sectors.
