Plus Codes are free, open-sourced, digital addresses that provide simple and accurate addresses for any place on Earth, including for places that don’t have 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!
Since its launch in 2018, we have seen Plus Codes being adopted at scale by NGOs (including Addressing the Unaddressed and Shelter Associates) and governments (such as in Sub-Saharan Africa) as it serves the addressing needs of millions of people. Plus Codes also ease the discovery of and navigation to businesses.
In addition to community-led efforts, we are also committed to empowering users to directly use Plus Code addresses for their daily needs. Today, we are pleased to announce the launch of the latest Plus Codes feature on Google Maps in 18 countries across MENA including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Egypt Morocco, Algeria and more. Through which you can use your current location to find the Plus Code address for your home.
Whether 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 the 18 countries 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. We have also added a 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 following soon.
Here’s how it works:
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We launched this feature in India earlier this year, and are thrilled to share that over 500,000 users in India have already found their homes address using Plus Codes. We are looking forward to expanding to more types of places (beyond just ‘Home’ and ’Work’), 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.
