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.
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.
The original use case, as far as I know, is helping search and rescue. Words that are easy to communicate verbally, and easy to remember, so you dont have to worry about bad radio or phone signal garbling communication. Even if your phone dies, or you dont have pen/paper, it’s easy enough to remember the three words and communicate to search and rescue after you’ve made it out to a trailhead or whatever.
“Where are you?”
“ThereThey’reTheir”
I would hope they minimize the use of homophones. They do use different forms of words, but the way the words are assigned, you aren’t going to have 2 really similar sounding locations in the same area. If you know someone went missing on a hike in Scotland, you’ll be able to figure out that the three words correspond to a Scottish location and not somewhere in Kenya.