Google India has launched a new India-first feature on Google Maps where users can save and share their home addresses with Plus Codes.
Plus Codes are free, open-sourced, digital locations that provide simple and accurate addresses, including for places that don't have accurate formal addresses.
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.
The update will help users provide precise digital addresses of their residences that they can use for faster home deliveries, without sharing any landmarks or voice instructions.
The feature is currently available on Android only, with iOS following soon.
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Plus Codes explained
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.
Google Maps has also added a section at the top of the ‘Saved’ tab to make it easier to retrieve, copy, and share these home addresses.
Users can simply copy the Plus Code and paste it in their chat to provide precise location details of their home location to anyone they want. The alphanumeric code will, however, not include any of user's personal details, such as name and email ID.
Plus Codes are based on a set of 20 alphanumeric characters. They do not include easily confused characters, are not case-sensitive, and they exclude vowels.
Users can also edit or remove your home address with Plus Code directly from Google Maps.
Plus Codes work whether online or offline — users don’t need an internet connection.
To expand to more types of places
"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’s address using Plus Codes," Google India said.
Google is planning to expand to more types of places beyond just ‘Home’ and ’Work’, and is actively looking for opportunities to partner with e-commerce, logistics, and delivery companies.
The feature was first launched in 2018 but used only by NGOs.
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