Kurviger and What3Words

[Uli LH]

Hi Emux, hi Robin,

hope, you are as fine as Kurviger is ... :)))

Just a completely different topic: ;)

Perhaps you know What3Words (what3words.com, have also a look on Wikipedia) - a very useful software (browser and app) to find a very specific location (within 3 (!) meters), undependantly from adresses - 

very important for emergency cases (!!) or to meet again if you are cruising in a group and someone is lost, specially if you are far outside (a strong suggestion to install this app)!

I use this app and have a question now:

If:

- someone identifies his location on What3Words,

- sends the 3 words locator at example by WhatsApp to me,

- I open the link on WhatsApp,

WhatsApp (resp. Android) offers to open it by Google Maps or by HERE (the both other apps for navigation running on my smartphone), but NOT by Kurviger. :(

Is there an explanation (i guess it depends on Android rather than on Kurviger - or?) or a solution?

And: (How) Could Kurviger be enabled to look also for numerical GPS coordinates by the search field?

Thx and best greetings!
Uli

[Emux]

Hi Uli,

Thanks for the information, will check it!

> Is there an explanation (i guess it depends on Android rather than on Kurviger - or?) or a solution?

I think would need to add support in Kurviger app, for that to work. :)

> Could Kurviger be enabled to look also for numerical GPS coordinates by the search field?

There is already the "Tools" > "Go to" to visit specific map positions (see screenshot).
Does it help?

--
Emux

[Emux]

Forgot to mention that the coordinates format in the "Go to" tool depends on selection at Settings > Application > Coordinates, that is D.D° or D°M.M′ or D°M′S.S″.

--
Emux

[Uli LH]

Thx for imeediate reply. :)


Let's imagine following situation:

You are rinding (as a biker it's even more dangerous than for ma as a roadster cruiser) and you have an accident 

(that's a much more serious situation than if you have lost your biker group because it took to long time for a - hmmm - pee stop ...).

You need help, are immobile and therefore send your exact W3W location (which could even be behind a tree, so you are not to be found by just following the road) by WhatsApp (or SMS or ...).

Your friends (or someone else) get the WA message and tap on the link. If they have only Kurviger installed (and not Google Maps, or Maps does not work), nothing happens, as I have described above. Bad.

IF Maps works, but you want to use Kurviger as a navigator, you may of course enter the GPS coordinates (which are shown by Maps) by hand, digit by digit, into Kurviger by "Go to coordinates". But this takes time and is very prone to errors.


So the question is still: How do I force ANDROID (and I guess, its the OS which decides) to offer also Kurviger to open as navigator and take the location out of the link, as Maps (or HERE) does?

Maybe this is a quite sophisticated "problem", but W3W seems to become a far spread emergency tool, and a close(r) interface with Kurviger could be an important feature (and a unique selling point - and, more important, could save time and life).

See here an example of a W3W link, how it is sent with a WhatsApp or SMS message (don't try to think about the 3 German words: They have no meaning, this IS the 3 words Code of the location within 3 x 3 meters!):

http://w3w.co/medizinerin.erhielten.noten

If you open this URL on your PC, W3W will open in the browser, und you find the position.

But if I try to open the same URL on my smartphone, Android (or is it the W3W interface?) offers only Google Maps and HERE (and navigation by a compass) (see screenshot).

[Robin]

Hi Uli,

thanks for the interesting proposal. What 3 Words looks very good.

> So the question is still: How do I force ANDROID (and I guess, its the OS which decides) to offer also Kurviger to open as navigator and take the location out of the link, as Maps (or HERE) does?

Every app can register urls that it offers to open. For example Kurviger can register to open a link from https://kurviger.de/en, everytime you would open this link, you would get the choice to open it with the Kurviger app or the browser. In this case we would have to register for that url and also need to get Kurviger to do something meaningful with that url, so we have to be able to decode the three words back to coordinates.

We have to see if we can access the W3W API to decode the address.

Thanks,

Robin

[Uli LH]

I see - more complicated than I guessed at the beginning (as I thought the OS does the decision, which apps are offered to the user to process the information) - as usual! :))

That means, the developers of Google Maps and HERE included an interface to W3W?
Or W3W included the interfaces to Maps and HERE (and perhaps others) by itself?

As far as I understood (which is not TOO far ... ;) ), W3W offers (free?) access to the API on it's website ...

[Emux]

Since it appears required to connect to their server via their API and decode any words, that usually means that all interested apps would need to add explicit support for that feature.

--
Emux

[Robin]

> That means, the developers of Google Maps and HERE included an interface to W3W? 

Yes, they have to interact with the W3W API to decode coordinates form words.

> W3W offers (free?) access to the API on it's website ...

Yes this is correct. I also signed up for an API key and gave it a quick test. It seems to work and could be integrated into Kurviger. So I think we will add it to the Todo list and probably implement it at some point :).

Cheers,

Robin

[Uli LH]

Thx - you are great!!! ;)))

[Emux]

Kurviger 1.2 was released with also the What3Words integration.

--
Emux