Maps will now let India users rely on ‘Plus codes’ when saving and sharing their Home addresses. Plus Codes include a set of 6 or 7 letters, numbers along with the name of the town or city for the particular address. They do not rely on street and locality names, instead use latitudes and longitudes. The Plus Codes feature was originally rolled out in India back in 2018. It has so far been extensively used by businesses, NGOs, etc. According to the company. The capability is now being extended to home addresses as well.“We piloted this feature in India a month ago, and are thrilled to share that over 300,000 users in India have already found their home 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 Amanda Bishop, Product Manager, Google Maps. According to Google, the feature is rolling out to Android first, and iOS will get the capability later on. Now, when someone is saving a ‘Home’ location on Google Maps, they will see a prompt asking them to “Use current location”. This will use their phone’s location to generate a Plus Code, which they can then use as their Home address. Google has also added a section at the top of the ‘Saved’ tab to make it easier to retrieve, copy, and share these home addresses.
How to identify Plus Codes
“With a Plus Code, people can receive deliveries, access emergency and social services, or just help other people find them,” Google explains on its website. Check out the video below to know more
Advantages of Plus Codes
Google has also listed the advantages of using Plus Codes in a few key pointers. For one, the company says these are open-source and easy to use. They are much shorter than traditional global coordinates, so they’re easy to share as well. Plus Codes work whether one is online or offline. An internet connection is not needed at all times, which is another advantage in India, where mobile connectivity can be patchy at times. Further, Plus Codes are language independent. They do not include easily confused characters, are not case-sensitive, and they exclude vowels. Google Maps in India is getting Plus codes and other new features in order to make address search simpler across the country. Google Maps will also support voice navigation search in six additional Indian languages. While the Plus codes feature has been rolled for the Android version of Google Maps, the iOS version of the app will get the feature later. The Plus codes feature — also known as the Open Location code, which has been live since 2014 — is open-source and available to third-party apps and services to use as well. Maps in India has supported Plus codes for some months now, and these will now be reflected in addresses for homes and businesses. Google Plus codes are based on the concept that the world can be divided into small grids, each of which gets assigned a unique code to ensure a more consistent address system. On Google Maps, Plus codes assign six characters to a location plus the city name. Each Plus code represents a unique geographical location, says Google.
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