January 05, 2014

W3W app

what3words is supposedly a cool location sharing app. kind of a nice idea but im not sold just yet.

for location sharing purposes, why wouldnt you just share the location in whatsapp, its 2 clicks? well, w3w offers also email sharing (slow, write both sender and receiver email!!). and there are fancy buttons at the top of the app, but honestly i cant figure out what they do (clicking didnt do much). i dont like when that happens, an app should not be that difficult. im talking about these:

besides not needing this app, my biggest problem was that it doesnt seem able to settle for one "address". i photographed my phone sitting on the table, cos the address just keeps changing, without the phone being moved, but especially if u just pic it up and turn it to the right, or upside down...  it goes crazy. they have mapped the earth and divided it into 3x3 meter squares (yeah, sure, very cool), so i assume i can give any one of the ones that appears on the screen and it will lead my friend close enough....but t seems like they are trying to be too specific when 3G/wifi/GPS is not yet able to locate you so accurately. i am just bothered by the 3 words blinking and changing, i have to usually wait 30 secs for it to settle... i am sure they will eventually fix this, and it might depend on networks too (but i should say i only tested this at home, where the phone had wifi in addition to all other tools, so it was the best possible scenario). 

the one fun thing about this app is writing random 3 words in the address field and seeing where it takes you. i tried it once, and bloody hell, i ended up near 8 mile in Detroit. and it was just random.three.words! it can work as a guessing game, for you to try 3 words and then and guess where you are.

but for now i wont be using this app, street addresses are quite practical as they relate to reality (ie. if my address is dumlupinar sokak 12, a friend would know they are close when they see a street sign for "dumlupinar sokak", and they can ask anyone local for "dumplupinar sokak") and most of the time street addresses  actually give an accurate location on google maps. just as accurate as this app here. because i searched for one of the 3 word clues my phone gave me while sitting at home, and the map pinpointed the opposite corner. just 50m off. but thats kind of how it is with maps these days, 2014. its close enough, but not perfect. maybe "in the west" its much better. and yes, furthermore, if a friend has whatsapp, i would send my location from there, easy for me AND the receiver.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Suzi, good to read your article. You're right, there is a problem with the words changing too much, and this has been fixed in the new app which will be released in a few weeks (as well as it having a re-design, so the confusing icons at the top will disappear too). We're pleased that you like the concept, and I'm confident that the new app will really appeal to you.

Unknown said...

Hi Suzi, good to read your article. You're right, there is a problem with the words changing too much, and this has been fixed in the new app which will be released in a few weeks (as well as it having a re-design, so the confusing icons at the top will disappear too). We're pleased that you like the concept, and I'm confident that the new app will really appeal to you. Chris (w3w)

suzi9mm said...

Wow, thank you for noticing my little blog post and addressing my concerns - much appreciated. i look forward to the updates.