Find your way in London: How to use what3words

If you’re new to London, or even if you’re a local who’s needs a more efficient way of pinpointing a location when out at Notting Hill Carnival this weekend, what3words could be a convenient way of navigating the city. The app was created to meet a very real need: what happens when an address is wrong? Or when you don’t know the post code? Or when you’re in involuntary stealth mode in a bustling throng of people. Sigh. London is busy and not always well signposted. Which is where this app comes in handy. what3words has labelled every 10-foot-square patch on the planet with 57 trillion squares. This has made it easier to pinpoint locations with incredible precision without the need for confusing co-ordinates. And because it’s easier to remember than a string of numbers, it makes voice searches effortless. Precision combined with easy searching has proved invaluable in some emergency situations too, so this app could prove to be a literal life-saver wherever you are in the world. Convinced? Well, if you're now wondering just how to use what3words, you're ironically enough, in the right place.

How to use what3words

Download the app here. You can share a three-word address in any one of the app’s 26 languages. Make sure you choose the language you want to share your pins in from the from screen. It then uses geolocation tools to present a grid map of where you are right now. Tap a square to get your 3-word address or tap the bar to search for somewhere you know. Now you can either navigate to that spot from where you are using any one of your compatible apps. Or hit ‘navigate now’ and use your map app to share your location. Hopefully you'll never find yourself in an emergency situation, but if you do, just