what3words is a global grid system that labels every 3m × 3m square on earth with three ordinary words. "filled.count.soap" is a specific square near the River Trent. It's precise enough to identify a fishing peg or a roost tree, short enough to type on a phone, and impossible to get wrong through a typo (unlike coordinates).
Coordinates work — but they're awkward in practice:
- Long and hard to type.
52.93816, -1.17732is 15 characters including symbols. One transposed digit and you're a kilometre off. - No error-checking. If you mis-type a coordinate, there's no way to know you did.
- Hard to share. Try reading coordinates aloud to someone else. Try remembering them.
- Precision varies. Five decimal places is about a metre. Four is ten metres. Three is a hundred. Most people don't know which they're copying.
what3words fixes all of this:
- Three words, always. Any location on earth is three ordinary words.
- Error-resistant. If you mistype, the words still form valid addresses, but they'll point somewhere far away — so it's obvious something's wrong.
- Easy to share. "My sighting was at filled.count.soap" reads fine over the phone, in a text message, in field notes.
- Fixed precision. Every what3words address is exactly 3m × 3m. No ambiguity.
A cormorant sighting "near the river" is not evidence. A cormorant sighting at a specific 3m × 3m square, at a specific date and time, photographed, is evidence.
Same for biodiversity — "I saw a kingfisher somewhere on this stretch" is a nice memory. "I saw a kingfisher at filled.count.soap on Saturday at 07:42" is a data point. Multiply that across thousands of sightings and you have a dataset someone can do something with.
what3words is how we get precision without making people type coordinates.
Three ways:
1. Automatic (recommended)
- Tap the crosshair icon next to the what3words field on any form
- Your device GPS captures the current location
- The app converts it to what3words automatically
- You're done
This is the fastest route if you're at the location right now.
2. Manual
- Type the three-word address directly into the field (e.g.
filled.count.soap) - Use dots or slashes between words
- The app validates as you type — you'll see the location on the map
Useful if you know the what3words address from memory, from a note, or from another device.
3. From the what3words app or website
- Open what3words.com or the what3words app
- Find your location on the map
- Read off the three words so you know where you are
You cannot paste it into the Hydroscape form: the field there is read-only and is filled in from the position you set, by tapping the map or using the GPS crosshair. Looking it up separately is for your own reference, or for telling somebody else where you are.
Turning your coordinates into three words is a lookup over the internet, so with no signal it cannot be done at the time. Nothing is lost and there is nothing for you to do:
- The coordinates are captured on the device and they are the real record of where you were
- The three-word field is left empty, and says so underneath
- The form still submits
- When the report is sent, the three words are looked up and attached then
Precision is not lost, because the precision was always in the coordinates. The three words are a readable label for them.
what3words precision is absolute (always 3m × 3m), but your device's GPS accuracy isn't. On a phone in open ground, GPS is typically accurate to 5–10m. Indoors, near tall buildings, or under heavy tree cover, it drops off. If you're in dense woodland or a steep valley, check the pin the app drops actually matches where you are — if it's clearly wrong, adjust manually.