WhatThreeWords conversion

[pat100]

I like to use decimal map coordinates as they are a standardised format easily copied and pasted into my mapping and SatNav apps and many other utilities such as Google Maps and Earth, P4N and SforS which recognise them without editing. And they are free!
WhatThreeWords are trying to take over the coordinates world by selling companies a secret proprietary format.
I always copy and paste so it’s irrelevant to me whether coordinates are displayed as a string of numbers or English words.
W3W used to provide a converter which spat out decimal coordinates when you entered the 3 words and there were others online. They have now blocked this unless you pay a monthly subscription. Companies pay them money to use their much-hyped “user-friendly” system rather than the readily available free formats. Quite a clever way to make money out of … Nothing!
One method of conversion for the UK is to enter the 3words into streetmap dot co dot uk and tap the conversion link at the bottom of the page. An excellent website which I think is, sadly, up for sale.
I’d love to hear if you know of other (working) converting methods. Has their “secret code” been hacked yet?

 

[Revolvor]

I like to use decimal map coordinates as they are a standardised format easily copied and pasted into my mapping and SatNav apps and many other utilities such as Google Maps and Earth, P4N and SforS which recognise them without editing. And they are free!
WhatThreeWords are trying to take over the coordinates world by selling companies a secret proprietary format.
I always copy and paste so it’s irrelevant to me whether coordinates are displayed as a string of numbers or English words.
W3W used to provide a converter which spat out decimal coordinates when you entered the 3 words and there were others online. They have now blocked this unless you pay a monthly subscription. Companies pay them money to use their much-hyped “user-friendly” system rather than the readily available free formats. Quite a clever way to make money out of … Nothing!
One method of conversion for the UK is to enter the 3words into streetmap dot co dot uk and tap the conversion link at the bottom of the page. An excellent website which I think is, sadly, up for sale.
I’d love to hear if you know of other (working) converting methods. Has their “secret code” been hacked yet?

Decimal Map Coordinates are showing on my phone.

 

[pat100]

Decimal Map Coordinates are showing on my phone.
View attachment 972915View attachment 972916

Thanks. What phone and what app?

 

[MichaelT]

Thanks. What phone and what app?

It's just on the w3w app go onto settings then display settings and turn it on

 

[Revolvor]

Thanks. What phone and what app?

Android phone, and W3W. As MichaelT said, its accessed via settings. HOWEVER, I can't cut & paste the info from the screen.

I asked Copilot how to convert W3W addresses and got this:

This is a link to the batch converter.


Edited: Ignore all that, I have just tried to get an API, and the Free version does not give conversions!

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[Guigsy]

I'm on Android. I've switched on decimal co-ordinates in the settings. If I click on a square on the map, then long press on the location it pops up, it copies the 3 words AND the co-ordinates to the clipboard.

 

[pat100]

I'm on Android. I've switched on decimal co-ordinates in the settings. If I click on a square on the map, then long press on the location it pops up, it copies the 3 words AND the co-ordinates to the clipboard.

That’s brilliant! Thanks! On my iPad, in the W3W app, if I long press, I similarly get the option to copy a square's decimal coords. With them withdrawing the online converter I was (wrongly) expecting them to block conversions. I guess I was rather unfair to them in my original post.

 

[Jim]

I like to use decimal map coordinates as they are a standardised format easily copied and pasted into my mapping and SatNav apps and many other utilities such as Google Maps and Earth, P4N and SforS which recognise them without editing. And they are free!
WhatThreeWords are trying to take over the coordinates world by selling companies a secret proprietary format.
I always copy and paste so it’s irrelevant to me whether coordinates are displayed as a string of numbers or English words.
W3W used to provide a converter which spat out decimal coordinates when you entered the 3 words and there were others online. They have now blocked this unless you pay a monthly subscription. Companies pay them money to use their much-hyped “user-friendly” system rather than the readily available free formats. Quite a clever way to make money out of … Nothing!
One method of conversion for the UK is to enter the 3words into streetmap dot co dot uk and tap the conversion link at the bottom of the page. An excellent website which I think is, sadly, up for sale.
I’d love to hear if you know of other (working) converting methods. Has their “secret code” been hacked yet?

A bit of a rant. The Free and very convenient W3W allows a secondary display in half a dozen other formats, including Decimal. All free

My house.

 

[pat100]

A bit of a rant. The Free and very convenient W3W allows a secondary display in half a dozen other formats, including Decimal. All free

My house.
View attachment 972999

Fair comment! But there is potentially still some warning to heed in inventing another coordinates system. If most organisations adopt it to the exclusion of other systems and then W3W turn off the built-in conversion facility “ because no one needs it …” and then start charging for the app …
… we’re all doomed. DOOMED! DOOMED!

 

[chaser]

I would just use Google maps

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[Coolcats]

I like to use decimal map coordinates as they are a standardised format easily copied and pasted into my mapping and SatNav apps and many other utilities such as Google Maps and Earth, P4N and SforS which recognise them without editing. And they are free!
WhatThreeWords are trying to take over the coordinates world by selling companies a secret proprietary format.
I always copy and paste so it’s irrelevant to me whether coordinates are displayed as a string of numbers or English words.
W3W used to provide a converter which spat out decimal coordinates when you entered the 3 words and there were others online. They have now blocked this unless you pay a monthly subscription. Companies pay them money to use their much-hyped “user-friendly” system rather than the readily available free formats. Quite a clever way to make money out of … Nothing!
One method of conversion for the UK is to enter the 3words into streetmap dot co dot uk and tap the conversion link at the bottom of the page. An excellent website which I think is, sadly, up for sale.
I’d love to hear if you know of other (working) converting methods. Has their “secret code” been hacked yet?

You are of course correct, it does make me chuckle. I reluctantly let my wife input W3W into a destination and I used co-ordinates…

I did expect to be wrong but heck W3W actually showed the location in another field and my co-ordinates were spot on. Now whilst I can feel a bit chuffed at being right it also begs a question about W3W

 

[Guigsy]

You are of course correct, it does make me chuckle. I reluctantly let my wife input W3W into a destination and I used co-ordinates…

I did expect to be wrong but heck W3W actually showed the location in another field and my co-ordinates were spot on. Now whilst I can feel a bit chuffed at being right it also begs a question about W3W

W3W is set up so if you get the words slightly wrong, it'll give you a very distant location to make it obvious that it's incorrect. Each 3 word combo is accurate to a few metres. So the W3W and the coordinates were not set up to point to the same location.

 

[Jim]

I did expect to be wrong but heck W3W actually showed the location in another field and my co-ordinates were spot on. Now whilst I can feel a bit chuffed at being right it also begs a question about W3W

How can it show the wrong location? It shows the location of a particular 3m sq.

 

[Coolcats]

W3W is set up so if you get the words slightly wrong, it'll give you a very distant location to make it obvious that it's incorrect. Each 3 word combo is accurate to a few metres. So the W3W and the coordinates were not set up to point to the same location.

Yup I understand and just highlighting as you have the vagururies of missing a letter or of someone not inputting correctly. Some love it and some like myself find that other systems we have grown up with work accurately and you don’t have to dumb it down. But that’s the way of the world.

 

[Jim]

But there is potentially still some warning to heed in inventing another coordinates system.

I don't see the danger there, minutes and decimals will always be around. It's just another system, but a bit better than a post code.
I don't know the decimal coordinates for any location, but I can remember the W3W for all the important locations in my life.

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[Coolcats]

How can it show the wrong location? It shows the location of a particular 3m sq.

Jim the location provided by the owner of the property was incorrect had I followed W3W I would have been on a path to the field next door. The co-ordinates I used got me to the door. I did not use any W3W co ordinate data W3W was on the wife’s phone I won’t contaminate mine with the app

Only used it once under protest and that is my genuine experiance

 

[Jim]

Yup I understand and just highlighting as you have the vagururies of missing a letter or of someone not inputting correctly. Some love it and some like myself find that other systems we have grown up with work accurately and you don’t have to dumb it down. But that’s the way of the world.

Yes but how was it off in a field?

 

[Guigsy]

Yup I understand and just highlighting as you have the vagururies of missing a letter or of someone not inputting correctly. Some love it and some like myself find that other systems we have grown up with work accurately and you don’t have to dumb it down. But that’s the way of the world.

It's got a lot of flaws, but it is a pretty clever system. It's a lot easier to remember or convey 3 worlds over a dodgy phone line than it is to read out GPS coordinates... especially when you've got to argue about where the decimal point goes.

 

[Jim]

Jim the location provided by the owner of the property was incorrect

So nothing to do with W3W then. If you'd have used the right three words they would have got you to the door too

 

[Coolcats]

I don't see the danger there, minutes and decimals will always be around. It's just another system, but a bit better than a post code.
I don't know the decimal coordinates for any location, but I can remember the W3W for all the important locations in my life.

Should have added I’m not the only one and there is no perfect system.

What3Words geolocation leaves room for confusion – research

UK emergency services organizations urged to consider alternatives

www.theregister.com

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[Jim]

Should have added I’m not the only one

No you are not the only one to have ever been given the wrong address

 

[Guigsy]

Should have added I’m not the only one and there is no perfect system.

What3Words geolocation leaves room for confusion – research

UK emergency services organizations urged to consider alternatives

www.theregister.com

But if you're expecting a location in Snowdonia, but it gives you something in the middle of the Pacific, then you know there's something wrong. Whereas a missed digit could be much less obvious.

The issue I have with W3W is mainly that it's not open and free.

 

[Brains]

Remember W3W uses mobile phone mast triangulation to find a location.
It was originally designed to find a location within a festival site.

In an urban (or festival) setting it's quite accurate.
But in a rural setting it can be quite a long way out.
(and in a "not spot" it is totally useless)

The reason the blue light service like W3W is even over a crackly phone line with the caller in panic mode, they can get a fairly accurate location very fast.
(Even if they get words wrong, W3W is clever enough that anything that sounds or spells alike is thousands of miles away)

As a Scout leader we make sure every teenager has W3W on their mobile phones and knows how to use it.
We teach this before we even start on the basics of OS grids etc.

 

[Jim]

But in a rural setting it can be quite a long way out.
(and in a "not spot" it is totally useless)

Being lost in an area without a map, is not a good reason to diss maps

 

[Guigsy]

The last 8 phones I've had, have all had GPS. Mast triangulation is very rarely required. It's only really useful when the network is trying to locate the phone. In which case, you either can't talk, or you don't want to be found.

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[Jane And Rog]

The loss of the free tier of the W3W API has affected my app, Mundus. You used to be able to enter a W3W address in the search bar to make a pin, but that no longer works.

And given my app is a one-off cost, rather than a sub, I can’t afford to pay a sub for access to the API.

Luckily you can still enter GPS coords into Mundus, and that will always work.

 

[Widge]

Yes but how was it off in a field?

Sounds like it was nothing wrong with words with friends, but the person providing the three words probably had a poor gps signal when they looked it up.

Of course this would also be true if they had provided coordinates. The bottom line is always sanity check when using technology.

I know some people who drove an extra 35km because their gps was set to use motorways wherever possible, so it didn't use a 5km bit of dual carriageway cutting off a huge section of motorway.

 

[Jim]

Sounds like it was nothing wrong with words with friends, but the person providing the three words probably had a poor gps signal when they looked it up.

Maybe, but as a user from the beginning, the system has never given me a duff location even in low/no signal areas. People do go on about it competing with other 'Free' coordinator systems, and why use it when you can drop a pin etc. I generally agree with their arguments.

However, I don't see it as a replacement for coordinates, rather it's just a much better postcode system. Easier to use and recall and much more accurate.

 

[carolyn]

Delivery companies like it. Some of them have it on their apps if you download them.
Even if you don’t it’s well worth entering it on any other delivery info.

Useful in disputes eg no one home etc our house is called Half Acres, Behind us on a similarly named road is a group of old people’s bungalows and flats called Half Acres which causes confusion.

Delivery drivers don’t use Postcodes unless they’re Royal Mail.

We use it for family meet up points. It works fine in the sort of rural locations we go to these days. We’re not in the SAS.