If you're the type of person who enjoys any type of outdoor recreation, then it's entirely possible that you've ventured places where your phone signal is terrible. I know I have, and I'm far from the off-roadiest off-roader that ever off-roaded. Likewise, I'm sure there are readers who get way further out into the wilderness on a regular basis than I do.
Now, chances are also excellent that if you're the type of person who enjoys these kinds of activities, then you probably already know about Garmin inReach and similar satellite beacon systems that can assist you in getting help when you need it, even when you're way far off the grid. And really, anything you can do to make yourself a little safer and more findable in the event of an emergency is probably a great idea!
But what if you don't have a satellite beacon, or you're looking for a bit of redundancy in your personal gear setup? A recent backcountry snowmobile crash near Sault Saint Marie, Michigan demonstrated just how helpful the free geolocating smartphone app what3words can evidently be.
According to the CBC, a group of eight snowmobilers was out riding together when the lead rider was involved in a head-on collision with another snowmobiler headed in the opposite direction. One rider in the group immediately saw that their friend needed medical help, but they were kind of out in the middle of nowhere.
While they were able to successfully call 911, finding a quick way to accurately communicate where you are can be difficult in the backcountry, which is why some emergency responders find what3words to be very helpful.
What Is It, And How Does It Work?
The app assigns random, unique three-word codes to three-meter square areas around the globe. Users can also use it offline, or in places with bad cell phone reception. If you're in a place where you can't easily see road signs or other landmarks to tell rescuers where you are, this can help when time is of the essence because the rescuers can take your three-word location code, drop it in the app, and navigate to you more quickly.
It's not perfect, of course; nothing is. Now, a quick search shows no current mentions of data breaches associated with this app (a thing I look for any time I come across an app that's new to me, because it seems like there's a new data breach announcement for something or other almost every week). That's at the time of writing (at the beginning of April 2026), so go through whatever due diligence you perform before downloading anything onto your devices, please.
However, in 2023, a researcher at the Montreal AI Ethics Institute noted that there are some potential problems with what3words. To be honest, they're not really that surprising; after all, how often have you personally been communicating with a friend or loved one, and you or they have completely misunderstood the actual words that someone in the conversation said aloud? That tendency tends to get amplified in phone conversations, too; there's a reason the old party game focusing on spreading a rumor down a line of people was called "Telephone," isn't there?
Other folks who are concerned about open-source coding and accessibility have additional concerns about the app, because it's very much a proprietary and closed ecosystem. How you feel about that is, of course, up to your personal feelings on those matters.
The potential for it to be helpful seems good, though; just as long as you're aware that you may need to resort to spelling your three words out to make sure they're clearly communicated to the person on the other end of the line. If you have a long name like mine, you're probably already used to having to do this to get people to spell your name correctly; but if you don't, then you may want to learn.
