About What3words

Using What3words to Find Locations and Navigate to them.

‘What3words’ is a way of specifying exact locations using a unique combination of 3 simple words.
It is ideal for locations that have no street address and it is far simpler than latitude and longitude.

What3words addresses are written as 3 slashes followed by 3 short words.
e.g. The entrance from Fitzsimons Road into Westerfolds Park is ///shot.lease.statue
e.g. The carpark for our Bonds Rd planting is ///care.smile.gosh

You can use What3words:

  • on mobile phones and tablets, with the free What3words App.
  • on all devices, on the website https://what3words.com/

For more about what3words:

  • either go to the what3words App menus “Help & Support” > Tutorial
  • or go to the website https://what3words.com and see the tutorial on its homepage.

To see your current location as a what3words address:

  • If you have allowed the what3words App or webpage access to your location, when you start the App or webpage, it will show your location on a map and give you the what3words address.
  • If the location displayed doesn’t seem to be right, tap/click the arrow/crosshairs icon near the bottom-right of the display, and it will refresh your location.

To display a given what3words or street address location:

  1. If you have a web-link to a w3w location, just tap/click that link and it will take you to a what3words map to show you the location. Then go to step 5 below.
  2. If you only have a street address, or a printed what3words address (that is not a web link), then:
  3. Go into the what3words App or what3words webpage, and,
  4. Type in your what3words address (like ///word1.word2.word3) or street address (like 123 Some St, SomeSuburb).
  5. You will see your location highlighted on a road map display.
  6. You can also tap/click the small round icon in the bottom-right corner of the display, and it will show you an aerial view which helps you visualise the location and nearby landmarks.

To navigate from here to your destination location:

  1. Display your destination location.
  2. Tap/Click the Navigate button.
  3. The app will ask you to choose Google Maps or Apple Maps etc.
  4. Tap/Click your choice and what3words will hand over the equivalent latitude & longitude to your mapping app which will navigate you to that location.

To find out the what3words address for a location:

  • If you know a location on a map and you want to find out what its what3words address is, go to the what3words App, or website https://what3words.com and scroll & zoom its map to your desired location and then zoom in to see little squares which are individual what3words locations. Click on the square you want and you will see its what3words location displayed.

All Emergency services know about what3words so if you have an emergency, it is easy to report your location over the phone. (The Emergency-plus App on mobile devices is good for this.)

This Friends group will be using what3words to show the location of our planting activity meeting points.