Google Maps makes it easier to use and send Plus Codes

For those of us that have got our home or office addresses committee to memory, the idea of a place not having an easy address to know or any address at all is somewhat unthinkable. But Google says there are more than 2 billion people that don’t have an address or don’t have a residence that is easy to locate. Now they’re making it easy for you to know and share your Plus Code, the digital address that they launched back in 2015.

If it’s the first time you’re hearing about Plus Codes, you’re probably not alone since it’s not something most people are familiar with. It’s a digital address that is based from longitude and latitude coordinates of your current location. When you send it to someone who’s also using Google Maps, they will be able to find your location, whether it’s on a nameless street or a rural home out in the middle of nowhere.

If you want to know what your Plus Code is, open your Google Maps and look for the blue dot that identifies your current location. Make sure first that it’s the correct location of course. Tap the blue dot and you will be led to a blue page where you will see things like See nearby places, Share your location, Save your parking, etc. Look at the item at the top of all those options and you’ll see Location and then an alphanumeric code which may be combined with a location.

They actually look like a regular address but the Plus Code may replace the part where you usually see a house number or street. You can also find the Plus Code by dropping a pin at a location you want to fund out the code for. The codes are searchable on Google Maps as well as on Google Search. This means that “everywhere on the planet can now be uniquely identified.” You can use the codes to send to people who need to find you like deliveries and can be printed on papers, posters, signs.

This will also be useful during times of emergency and crisis where it’s important that people be accurately located. Plus Codes is open source so people can see how it works and develop their own apps as well.