It seems that what3words is proprietary. The app on AppStore expects 40€ annually for quite basic functionality, hard to see how something with potentially useful functionality can get global acceptance at these costs.

  • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    How does that work?

    V75V+8Q Paris, France

    If you reach “v75v+ paris”, it’s less detailed than the full plus code, and “paris+8q” doesnt get you anything.

    • kevincox@lemmy.ml
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      5 hours ago

      The fact is that it depends and it is a bit confusing for people not familiar. But it isn’t hard to get used to.

      +8Q, Paris isn’t specific enough. There are multiple +8Q inside Paris. It can also be a bit risky to make short codes like this especially with larger cities as different maps may put the city in different spots.

      What does work is +8Q Eiffel Tower which is useful for something like “Meet me here by the Eiffel Tower” or “I’m right here” when you are texting someone you are meeting and you know you are close but can’t see each other.

      So you end up with a few common options:

      • +8Q Eiffel Tower We are pretty close together but need to get the exact spot.
      • V75V+8Q Paris, France For exact spots around a known area.
      • 8FW4V75V+8Q For fully qualified with no reference needed.

      And a few less useful options:

      • 8FW4V7+ This large part of a city.
      • 8FW4+ This part of the country.
      • 8F+ This area of the world.

      If I was designing the system I don’t think I would have done this “trailing zeros assumed” approach. Because IMHO for day-to-day use V75V+ Would be more useful as a shortcut for ????V75V+ rather than the actual V75V????+ showing a rough location on a human scale (in this case the Eiffel Tower park is pretty clearly targeted) rather than an area larger than a city. But that is really the only complaint I have.

      • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Ah, that all makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I can see this being really useful once apps have handled all the ways people might want to shorthand things.

    • nitroemdash@lemmy.wtf
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      5 hours ago

      https://plus.codes/ click ミ > Grid

      The full plus-code is actually 8 characters before the plus and 2–3 after. Usually you only need 4 to get within one city. Just like with phone numbers, where the first geographical part is often omitted.