What3words not working

MuditaOS
1

Has anyone had any joy getting what3words working on their Mudita Kompakt?

I’ve sideloaded via the Aurora store but when I copy and paste the location I just get ///pretty.needed.chill which I think is a default location somewhere in Oxford (UK)!!

(I’m looking for a privacy first method for my kids to share location for pickups/emergencies)

3 Likes
2

@kefa I think it might be because Mudita Kompakt’s GPS is receive only. PLUS- even with the native maps apps, it’s advised to be outdoors- with a clear view of the sky- for best reception.

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Hi @urzula I’m not quite sure what you mean by ‘receive-only’ - w3w would only need to receive the GPS signal similar to other mapping apps

(understand that this would need clear line of sight to sky and take longer if satellite positions are not transmitted over the network)

1 Like
4

Did you try checking that Maps is working then opening w3w afterward? GPS fix usually takes time on the kompakt, especially the first time.

The alternative explanation is that w3w uses Google location services, which are not available on the Kompakt. Does it work on another degoogled smartphone ?

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I did indeed check that I was able to fix a location via maps and then open w3w without moving the phone. However, no joy with a w3w identifier being populated.

You might be right about w3w requiring google play services. I’ll see whether I can get https://mygrid.app working instead as this is OSS and allegedly allows E2E encrypted location sharing across Android/IOS.

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I personnaly share my position in Molly-OSS, which is a Signal client where the Google Maps part has been replaced by OSM.

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@kefa
Mudita Kompakt differers in the way it deals with GPS location data for privacy reasons.

  • It has a receive-only GPS which means the device’s GPS chip only listens to satellites.
  • It calculates your position locally on the device and does not transmit that data anywhere.
  • This ensures that your location stays private, because there’s no automatic sending of coordinates to external servers.
  • Since Mudita Kompakt is privacy-focused, it work this way: the GPS is purely a receiver, so your position is visible to you but not shared.

If you’ve been using this app on a standard smartphone, this probably means that it uses assisted or connected GPS.

  • On most smartphones, GPS is not just receive-only. It often works with Assisted GPS (A-GPS), which uses:
  • Cellular towers,
  • Wi-Fi hotspots,
  • Bluetooth beacons,
  • And cloud services.
  • This makes location fixes faster and more accurate, but it also means your device is transmitting data to external servers (Google, Apple, etc.), often continuously.
  • Apps then use this data for maps, ride-hailing, advertising, geotagging, etc.
  • Result: more convenience, but less privacy.

So, the app may not function as you are used to it functioning because of this.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Offline mode question
8

thanks @urszula - does this mean that apps use a different API for ‘receive-only’ vs ‘assisted’ gps (or is this transparent to the app requesting location)?

1 Like
9

@kefa Here’s the thing: apps don’t usually talk to the GPS chip directly.

  • They call a location API (like Android’s LocationManager or iOS’s Core Location).
  • Whether the device is pure receive-only or uses A-GPS is decided by the OS and hardware setup, not the app.
  • The only difference: the quality of the fix (speed, accuracy, frequency).