Add specificity options to Google Maps plus codes

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Owen Gallagher

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Aug 8, 2021, 10:12:25 AM8/8/21
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Hi,

This is mostly a feature request for Maps, but am happy to learn of alternatives, existing duplicate requests, or correction if I misunderstand anything.

From my OLC specs reading, so far I’m aware that plus codes break down the Earth’s surface into cells with customizable precision (add/remove least significant digits on the right and possibly padding with 0, ex. CCCC0000+ vs CCCCCCCC+CCCC), optional use of a reference location (remove digits from the left and using a landmark name to select outer cell, ex. CCCC+CC City, Province), and the + formatting character to keep track of the place value, analagous to the decimal point.

However, when a plus code is given in Google Maps, the code always uses the same formatting and there isn’t any widget near the given plus code or in Maps configuration to customize it

pluscode.png

In my case, I don’t want to use the 6-digit version with a reference location (ex. GGHH+JJ City, Province) and would much prefer the absolute 10-digit equivalent (ex. CCFFGGHH+JJ) to avoid ambiguity and to be more aware of which larger regions correspond to which leftmost digits (ex. I want to recognize what continent/ocean is likely referenced with a CCFF0000+ prefix).

Thanks and greetings,

Owen

Sorry if my examples are not within the valid coordinates range, I was too lazy to use real examples

Andreas B

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Aug 10, 2021, 6:24:46 AM8/10/21
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Hi Owen,

this is something that has in fact been discussed both here and in the GitHub repository. Both the full code (8 digits in front of the + sign) and the short code (4 digits in front of +, followed by a reference location) are valid plus codes, and each project using plus codes can decide whether to use one or the other. Google Maps chose to only display short codes with the major difficulty being that a reference location needs to be turned back into coordinates first, making it hard to copy a short code from there to elsewhere and use it without problems (especially offline).

While some Googlers are watching this group, it might be best to give feedback via the Google Maps app directly, and request an optional display of full codes as a feature there.

In the meantime, https://plus.codes/map has a grid function that you can enable to show full code prefixes for the whole map. I hope that helps with your understanding of what prefix typically addresses what region.

Owen Gallagher

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Aug 29, 2021, 5:40:33 PM8/29/21
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Thanks for your thoughts! I’ll definitely start by posting my request via Maps user feedback.
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