Google Maps allows Indian users to save and share home locations with Plus codes

Google Maps received an update for its users in India yesterday that allows them to save and share their home addresses with Plus codes. The update will help users get accurate digital addresses of their residences that they can use for faster deliveries of their food, medicine and packages, without sharing any waypoints or voice instructions. Addresses with Plus codes can also be shared with others to make navigation easier. Plus Codes are free open source digital addresses that are intended to provide accurate location details.

With the latest update, you can now generate a Plus code for your address through Google Maps. The app will show you a new option Use your current location when saving a start location that will use your phone's location to generate a Plus code. Once saved, the location of the house with the generated Plus code can be shared directly from the Saved tab in Google Maps.

In case you already have a location saved as your home on Google Maps, you will see a further code next to it for precise details.

You can just copy the Plus Code and paste it into your chat to provide precise details of your home location to whoever you want. In particular, the alphanumeric code will not include any of your personal data, such as your name and email address. Your home address is also saved to your private Google Maps profile and is not available for public access as a nearby place in the app. In addition, you can edit or delete your home address with the Plus code directly from Google Maps.

Google Maps has initially launched the new experience for Android users. However, it will also be available for iOS users in the coming days.

In announcing the update, Google said that India's first feature is designed to provide accurate home addresses via Google Maps.

Google said it initially tested the feature in India a month ago. More than 300,000 users in the country are already using it for their homes, the company said.

"We are looking forward to expanding to more types of places, and are actively looking for opportunities to partner with e-commerce, logistics, and delivery companies, to scale up the experience to more people across the world," said Amanda Bishop, Product Manager, Google Maps, in a prepared statement.

In 2015, Google introduced Plus Codes as a solution for locating "hard to find" places around the world. The technology was launched in India in March 2018.

Google Maps in 2020 introduced the ability to allow users to share their current location using Plus codes by tapping the blue dot in the app.