what3words on innmaps

What is what3words

What3words (W3W) is a geocoding system for describing locations on Earth. It divides the world into 57 trillion 3x3 meter squares, each encoded with three words. Like traditional coordinates, every square gets a fixed, globally unique combination. The classic coordinate 50.1612544, 7.4842112 becomes ///dankt.anlegen.kinosaal. Unlike coordinates, the precision is fixed at 3 meters. The what3words format is defined as ///<word>.<word>.<word> and supports multiple languages.

What is W3W used for?

Words instead of numbers are a familiar way to describe locations, like street names. But what3words is especially useful for places without addresses: hiking trails, beaches, or areas in developing countries where street names don't exist. What3words also lists delivery drop-off points and navigation at large events as use cases, though those are not areas we have experience with.

What is the problem with W3W?

Unfortunately, what3words is not an open standard but a patented invention of a private company. That means using it costs money, even just translating between coordinates and what3words words. There are also practical reports of confusion with voice input. Mountain rescue teams have documented cases where typos or mishearing led to completely wrong locations, unnecessarily prolonging rescues and reducing survival chances.

Is W3W coming to innmaps?

We considered whether to support what3words. We like the basic idea and don't enjoy typing long coordinates either. Words are easier to type, but actually we don't want to type at all. The underlying problem is really about sharing locations, and there is surely a better solution for that.

In our view, any standard that tries to replace traditional coordinates must be open and free. We need to be able to implement it offline. It also presents a privacy concern: every lookup passes through what3words' servers, which is especially critical for user location data.

For those reasons, we have currently decided against implementing what3words support in innmaps.

If you disagree, we'd love to hear from you. Our position can change and we are always open to other perspectives. Reach out via email or on Instagram. We look forward to the conversation, and perhaps a comment section will follow soon.