Anyone used the what 3 words app?

[Toddlerteaplease]

My sister used it when her car broke down and the breakdown service could t find her. Despite being on a main road.
My dad had an accident yesterday and injured his knee in the middle of nowhere , so used it again, and again It didn't work. Has any one actually used it successfully?!

(It's an app the divides the entire country into small sections with 3 words allocated to each one. So your location in an emergency can be found.)

@stampo

I'd never heard of it until right now. Yet another genius app idea i didn't think up in time. So could my house be 'chicken patio Brazil"? And no other 3m squared on the planet has the same 3 words? Is it only in English?

You can't choose the words. The words are unique to each location.

There is no chicken patio Brazil, but chicken patio rail is somewhere in Russia.

I wouldn't recommend posting your personal address online, but you may or may not be pleased by the three words that indicate where you live!

Different languages are available.

Oh, and just to add - different languages give you completely different words/locations. They're not direct translations!

I’ve used it to help direct the RAC to where I was. It’s brilliant

@BillMasheen “I used to work in a sprawling office block. We would give the wtw of our desks to colleagues from other departments when they came to collect documents. It is that accurate. It saved so much faff.”

Did you ever have a situation when you all met in the correct area, just all dotted over different floors? 😂

We use it all the time at work and it's invaluable.

DS has also used it extensively (since it's very early days) in Scouts / Explorers where they've used it for treasure hunts, orienteering etc

Yes had to phone the police to report a suicide I found, really useful app

@Ilovemaisie both incidents were very rural.

@Lindy2 the people looking for them had the problem!

I'm puzzled as to why it didn't work with the ambulance service. My dad was in the middle of a field I think.

I've got my vaccine booked for Saturday and along with the details of the hospital it's booked at, they gave me the What 3 Words to find the exact location of the clinic.

Yes, I had to call the fire brigade to the middle of nowhere and it worked.

About two years ago a friend used it to tell the ambulance service where to come to in the middle of nowhere but at the time they didn’t use it....they do now.

Yes used it successfully;
Finding guide camp locations that are in the middle of nowhere!

A couple of weeks ago we found an injured swan in some fields and used it for the Swan Rescue people (v handy) as there were no landmarks about!

I have used it successfully for finding clients houses.

The one time I used it in an emergency the three words it gave me sent people to a location 4 miles away.

Total pants. Good job it wasn't life or death

Your house wouldn’t be only one set of words. Your front door would be but the house will be split into different words. It’s very accurate.

I have the app on the Home Screen of my Apple Watch. One press and it says them. Recommended by my police call handling friend!

@Toddlerteaplease did he ensure it was centred on his location before,he read the words off? It can be a bit slow on some phones and Opens at a default location. Especially if the gps is a bit shonky or it is really cloudy (it often opens at the location you last opened it at).

You do have to hit the ‘Center‘ button, and zoom out a bit to check.

@Amelia666. No. Though it could have happened. It was all open plan so the room numbers were meaningless. It was a sod to find anything.

I used to have to say... right go up staircase b to floor 6 (NOT staircase b1, that only goes to floor 5) then turn left past the green kitchen, then you’ll see a large potted plant... go, straight on... you’ll see the assistant directors office, now turn left... they’d ring us in despair just after the kitchen and id have to guide them in.

It was so much easier to say ‘floor 6 widget, gravy, intimidate’

Yes, thankfully not in an emergency but it worked bang on.

I’ve just checked and mine opened in The Strand in London. I am not in London. You do have to hit the crosshairs button to zoom to location.

I’d recommend everyone plays around with it first before they really need it!

Like other users I used it when calling the emergency services after witnessing a bad mountaineering accident earlier this year. I gave the name of the crag and Mountain Rescue knew where that was, but they took time to mobilise - the air ambulance and coastguard came from Yorkshire to Lancashire and wouldn’t have a clue as to where the crag was. We cross-referenced it with an OS grid reference from the Ordanance Survey locate app, and then double checked it with the paper map we had. The guy was v badly injured but we were easily found and he survived.

It's brilliant it's basically replacing the grid reference which a long numbers hard to remember whereas 3 random words are easier to say and remember.

@BillMasheen I'm wondering if neither of them did that.

I have downloaded it and my son did as well. The app gave us both 3 different words for the exact same spot. We were sitting right beside each other on the sofa.

I can think of a few occasions when this could be useful. Thanks for the tip.

Yeah I’ve just tried it again and it keeps giving me three different words for where I am and I haven’t moved.

I used it to tell the fire brigade about a fire I came across in the woods. I offered them a six figure grid reference but the woman on the phone said they used the three words app. They did come and put the fire out so it must have worked.

@UhtredRagnarson

Yes, my old iPhone phone did that. Dodgy GPS signal and a shite receiver. The cheapo Samsung seems to be better. If there happen to be fewer satellites over you, it can be harder for it to plot an accurate fix on your location. But any of the different sets of three words it gives will work.