Plus Codes are free, open-sourced, digital addresses that offer accurate addresses for any place on earth, including those without accurate formal addresses. Instead of street and locality names, Plus Codes are based on latitude and longitude, and are displayed as a short sequence of numbers and letters that provide accuracy right up to the doorstep.
Google India has launched a new India-first feature on Google Maps where users can access their current location to find the Plus Codes.
“Since its launch in 2018, we have seen Plus Codes being adopted at scale by NGOs in India and beyond (including Addressing the Unaddressed, Shelter Associates, and Rural Utah Project) and governments (such as Sub-Saharan Africa) as it serves the addressing needs of millions of people. Plus Codes also ease the discovery of and navigation to businesses,” said Amanda Bishop, product manager, Google Maps.
The feature was piloted in India a month ago, and are over 300,000 users in India have already found their home’s address using Plus Codes. “We are looking forward to expanding to more types of places, and are actively looking for opportunities to partner with e-commerce, logistics, and delivery companies, to scale up the experience to more people across the world,” said Bishop.
Be it getting food or parcels delivered, sending a location to friends or family to help them get to your home, or navigating, people can use Plus Codes addresses seamlessly, without going through the hassle of sharing approximate addresses with landmarks, or voice instructions that may be ambiguous.
When saving a ‘Home’ location on Google Maps, users in India will see a new ‘Use your current location’ that uses their phone’s location to generate a Plus Code (if the location precision meets minimum thresholds,) which they can then use as their Home address. There is also a new section at the top of the “Saved” tab to make it easier to retrieve, copy, and share these home addresses. The feature is currently available on Android only, with iOS to follow soon.
