what3words & Garmin Drive App

[Selsley]

does anyone know if delm8 still works with garmin drive?

[jfheath]

does anyone know if delm8 still works with garmin drive?

I guess not. Your question implies that it worked once, but doesn't work now.

No one has ever mentioned Delm8 before. A route planning app for delivery drivers, according to Google.
So possibly not used by many Zumo users.

If you provide a bit more information, someone may be able to help. I guess that Delm8 uses a mobile phone for navigation.
This forum is aimed at Zumo users.
Garmin Drive is a phone app designed specifically to work with the Zumo XT.

[Selsley]

does anyone know if delm8 still works with garmin drive?

I guess not. Your question implies that it worked once, but doesn't work now.

No one has ever mentioned Delm8 before. A route planning app for delivery drivers, according to Google.
So possibly not used by many Zumo users.

If you provide a bit more information, someone may be able to help. I guess that Delm8 uses a mobile phone for navigation.
This forum is aimed at Zumo users.
Garmin Drive is a phone app designed specifically to work with the Zumo XT.

delm8 is a property housefinder from post code, you type in the postcode then, delm8 lists all the properties in that postcode, house names and numbers, once selected you can send the co ordinates to google maps or gamin drive app to send to sat nav. i stopped using delm8 as its a paid service, and what 3 words could almost do the same thing for free.

[guiri]

Many thanks Stu, I assume when Garmin updated the Drive App recently they changed something, intentionally or by accident!

(I am using Android on Samsung)

I got in the habit of saving locations in what3words, and found it convenient to navigate to them via the Drive app. After the Drive app was broken, I found a workaround which was to navigate via the Tread app (which dropped a waypoint that could be synced via Explore).

That workaround has also broken after a recent Tread update (15 Feb 2024).

I believe Garmin do not want people sending coordinates to the XT from other apps. In this page https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=d ... oSGKzQIhGA, it mentions specifically that coordinates are not searchable.

It is possible to search coordinates in Google Maps, as explained in that support page, and then share this from Google Maps to Drive, where it appears as Shared Location. If you do that for the Empire State Building, and send to clipboard, you don't get coordinates but you get a Google link https://maps.google.com/?cid=1507492190 ... &entry=gps. It makes me think that Garmin are not accepting coordinates but will take a Google link that will then need a call to the Google geocoding API.

What does this mean in practice for what3words? If you want to navigate to a saved location then...
Select Navigate in w3w then choose Google Maps
In Google Maps, select Share then choose Drive
A Google Map preview will open in Drive with a pin on the Shared Location
This location can then be sent to the XT
It appears as Shared Location in the history of XT (before Drive was broken, the word Coordinates would appear in the history)

I imagine it is necessary to have internet for this workaround to work.

Cheers
guiri

[Selsley]

update, reinstalled delm8 today and it sends coordinates to garmin drive then to my sat nav no problem,the one thing i noticed is that the coordinates seem to be a lot longer than they used to be... and since i updated my voice controlled garmin the other day trying to get what 3 words to work, it now doesnt want to work as well, i get its attention and say search postcode, then it refuses to do anything, im starting to wonder if garmin is as good as they are given credit for. i know i likely came here by accident but the topic was about what3words and garmin drive, no idea what zumo was, i thought it was the name of the forum or forum website, but zumo or satnav, the problem is with garmin drive.and thus is relevent to both.

[Stu]

update, reinstalled delm8 today and it sends coordinates to garmin drive then to my sat nav no problem,the one thing i noticed is that the coordinates seem to be a lot longer than they used to be... and since i updated my voice controlled garmin the other day trying to get what 3 words to work, it now doesnt want to work as well, i get its attention and say search postcode, then it refuses to do anything, im starting to wonder if garmin is as good as they are given credit for. i know i likely came here by accident but the topic was about what3words and garmin drive, no idea what zumo was, i thought it was the name of the forum or forum website, but zumo or satnav, the problem is with garmin drive.and thus is relevent to both.

Zumo is the name of the range of sat navs for motorcycles

But the core software on most garmin devices are the same so it appears to be relevant to you and your situation

[guiri]

Ok, a further update for the technically minded amongst you! This issue was bugging me so I have written a little Android test app to simulate a navigation program. That allows me to see the intent that what3words (or any other app for that matter) is sending when a request is made to navigate to a location. "Intent" is the name given in the Android system to inter app requests.

First of all, I found an app that can successfully send latitude and longitude to Garmin Drive. This is iOverlander. You choose a particular place, then select "View in mapping app". This will then take you to the standard Android "Open with" picker. At this point I am selecting my test app which logs the request.

iOverlander sends the following intent for a campsite near me:

geo:0,0?q=53.33704,-1.92364(Chinley Campsite)

Note the campsite name label in parentheses.

Now, if I go to the same location in what3words, and then navigate to it, the intent that is sent is:

geo:0,0?q=53.337039,-1.923649

Putting aside the slight difference in the coordinates, the main difference is that what3words does not send a label in parentheses.

I believe that it is this omission by what3words that causes Garmin Drive to reject the request as "No location information found in the link provided".

Garmin Drive is being very picky in this rejection; clearly there are coordinates available, and the intent is accepted by Google Maps even if not by Garmin Drive. The intent without the name label is also ignored as a location by Garmin Tread latest version (whilst working previously).

Why is Garmin Drive (and Tread) being picky? If you look at the two relevant references, it's not clear that the label is intended to be optional...
https://developer.android.com/guide/com ... on#ViewMap
https://developers.google.com/maps/docu ... a-location

Wikipedia suggests that these are all unofficial extensions of RFC 5870, and goes on to give an example of a q query without the label (as per what3words)...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geo_URI_scheme

Since it previously worked in both Drive and Tread, then stopped working in Drive after an update and later in Tread after an update, I believe it is Garmin who have tightened up their code in both apps (I would say unnecessarily).

Does anybody want to ask Garmin to be less picky, or what3words to be more "standard"?

Also, if anybody has an app that they want to see the specific intent for, let me know!

For reference, software version dates tested for this post...
Garmin Drive - 2 Jan 2024
Garmin Tread - 22 Feb 2024
What3words - 29 Jan 2024

[FrankB]

Ok, a further update for the technically minded amongst you.

Excellent info. I'm not an Android developer, but I can relate to the info.
I would be interested in your source code, just out of curiousity. Send me a PM if you agree.

I cant prove it, because I did not keep the evidence. But it is my strong belief that, about a year ago, it was possible to share a location from Google maps to Garmin Drive. All of a sudden it stopped working. When I tried it a week or 2 ago it worked again. Can you verify that with your app?

[guiri]

I would be interested in your source code, just out of curiousity. Send me a PM if you agree.

I built the test app by hacking the "hello world" example in the B4A rapid development tool. I'll do an explanatory post on the forum of B4A and link back here, as it might help others looking for a way to spy on intents!

I cant prove it, because I did not keep the evidence. But it is my strong belief that, about a year ago, it was possible to share a location from Google maps to Garmin Drive. All of a sudden it stopped working. When I tried it a week or 2 ago it worked again. Can you verify that with your app?

As I mentioned in my post above, it looks like sending what3words to Google Maps and then on to Garmin Drive is a viable workaround, albeit one that might need online access to the Google geocoding api. I'll have a look at what the intent is from Google to Garmin.

[jfheath]

Looking at W3W on an ,android phone, you can configure what data is sent when the location is shared.

Options can be turned on or off, but include lat/long in various formats

Also ///what.three.words format
web addresss, an explanation message, uk national grid

But www and w3w options are linked, so if one is turned off, the other is turned on.

If you subsequently select the share option, the selected app receives the selected data. I selected the messaging app. SMS. it opened up my messaging app and displayed the ///what.three.words address and followed it with 54.123456 , -2.123456

Edit - actually, selecting copy is easier. Then paste it into (say) text messager - anywhere that will let you select just the lat/long figures.

Copy the lat/long into the drive app and it displays my position, finds the address, which can then be sent to the Zumo.

It just needs an app on the phone that strips out the W3W address to be and forward it to the drive app ? But that is usable with phone in hand ? Maybe iphones dont have the same options ? Edit - my iphone works the same way as just described.

But it only takes a minute or so to convert a what 3 words location to a destination received by the XT. Clunky, but not a big deal.

I don't know, but suspect the W3W app may have insisted that it always shares the w3w address format - or - Garmin, being a commercial organisation might have to pay for using the system.