Using iOS GPS features without street addresses

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Using iOS GPS features without street addresses

I live in Seychelles where we don’t have traditional street addresses. We don't use street numbers or have ZIP codes.

This makes using apples GPS features very difficult. I can’t for example set a home or work address which also means that I can’t set GPS reminders and raft of other features. Even using Apple Maps is complicated because very few business and locations are listed. Even petrol stations aren’t listed. I have tried adding them probably a dozen times and Apple Maps accepts the information but the addresses never seem to get listed. Google Maps works well enough but it is not integrated with all the iOS GPS features the way Apple Maps is. I was hoping that Apple would allow us to use GPS co-ordinates for addresses but it doesn’t seem to work. It needs be a “typical” address that it can corroborate with AM.

I can’t imagine that I’m the only person that who struggles with this problem.

Grateful if anyone can share their workarounds to make the applications work as they’re designed to work.

Posted on Aug 5, 2022 10:37 PM

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Answer 1

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Alancito

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Sep 8, 2022 4:42 AM in response to Seychellian

Seychellian wrote: "...however if I try to tap this address to use it for navigation I get "Directions not available"."

That's why I wrote in my previous post:

"To actually make use of the LL in a contact, I've created two other shortcuts: "Show a Contact in Maps" & "Directions to a Contact". ...But let's see how you get on with the first shortcut."

...Now that you've got on well with that first shortcut, if you want, you can try the two below which will make use of the LLs you've put in your Contacts. I've tested them where I live and they correctly show Locations & Directions using the LLs I've put in my Contacts for testing. Here are the shortcuts' iCloud links:

Show a Contact in Maps

Directions to a Contact

They can each be run directly or via the Share Sheet and their instructions are identical – so here are the instructions for just the first shortcut:

Show a Contact in Maps

1. From the Shortcuts app itself (or Siri or the "Show a Contact in Maps" icon you've optionally put on your Home Screen.) It will ask you to choose a contact (e.g. the Museum) to show in Maps.

...OR:

2. From the Contacts app: With a contact displayed (e.g. the Museum), tap Share Contact, then tap Show a Contact in Maps.

Seychellian wrote: "I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has a similar experience and possibly has developed some work arounds."

An alternative to Shortcuts is what3words – which is a human-friendly way of giving the same information as 16 digit GPS coordinates. Every 3 metre square in the world has its own unique what3words address. It's intended for use in places such as the Seychelles. They have a free iOS app and if you sign up (also free) you'll get extra features such as storing your favourite locations in the app. Here's the what3words URL for your Museum:

https://w3w.co/revise.blunt.curry

How to use the what3words app

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Answer 2

Alancito

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Aug 7, 2022 9:03 AM in response to Seychellian

Seychellian wrote: "...it would suffice for me to extract location data myself (long,lat or GPS) and add it to the contact manually."

Manually?! ...No, with the custom shortcut I've created, you can long press a location in Maps and have its LL (Latitude & Longitude) automatically added to a chosen Contact. And once that location data is in Contacts, other custom shortcuts can display the location in Maps, give directions to the location, etc.

There isn't a field in Contacts designated for LL – so I've made the custom shortcut store the LL in the Department field which appears under the contact's name. If you use the Department field in many of your contacts, you can suggest an alternative field:

Below is the iCloud link to the custom shortcut. Tap it and then tap "Get Shortcut" and you can add it to your "My Shortcuts" in the Shortcuts app:

Put Location in a Contact

There are two ways to use that shortcut which will appear as an option in the Share Sheet:

In Maps > Long press on an unmarked place > Tap "…" > Tap "Share" > Tap "Put Location in a Contact"

OR:

In Maps > Long press on a marked place > Tap "Share Location" > Tap "Put Location in a Contact"

...Either way, the shortcut then lets you choose a contact to add the LL location to.

To actually make use of the LL in a contact, I've created two other shortcuts: "Show a Contact in Maps" & "Directions to a Contact". ...But let's see how you get on with the first shortcut. Any problems – just post back. (And it's ok if you don't want to use it, I've learnt a lot doing this!)

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Answer 3

Alancito

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Sep 8, 2022 7:40 AM in response to Seychellian

Hi Seychellian! ~ You're welcome and you're partly correct in your testing. You can't get Directions in Apple Maps in the Seychelles because it isn't listed in the Turn-by-Turn Navigation section here:

iOS and iPadOS - Feature Availability - Apple

...So I'm sorry – I should have checked that before sending you my "Directions to a Contact" shortcut.

But the reason you're getting "This contact has no Latitude & Longitude" in your latest test video is because you haven't run the first shortcut I gave you: "Put Location in a Contact". You need to run that for your Test contact so that it will contain the LL.

You previously wrote: "I added the location of the central post office to it's corresponding contact using your nice shortcut". Okay, so my shortcut "Show a Contact in Maps" should work for the central post office – because you've already added its LL using my "Put Location in a Contact" shortcut.

Google Maps offers Driving & Walking directions in the Seychelles (see HERE) and so, in my "Directions to a Contact" shortcut, change the Show Driving directions action from "using Maps" to "using Google Maps":

...AND IT WILL WORK! Here are directions from the Museum to the Gas Station in Google Maps from my "Directions to a Contact" shortcut:

And what3words also offers Google Maps for Directions. So I'd be interested to know whether what3words & Google Maps will work better than Shortcuts for you:

Advice and answers from the what3words Team

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Answer 4

Alancito

Level 7

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Sep 16, 2022 3:08 AM in response to Seychellian

Seychellian wrote: "Done!"

Okay, good. iOS 16 is a bit buggy so you may see the Shortcuts app crash at times! This is the first of at least two posts. Please follow the instructions below so that everything is ready for the Reminders shortcuts coming very soon. Basically I've improved the orginal three shortcuts and added two new ones: Put Coordinates in a Contact (via Google Maps) & Directions to Home. So…

1. Delete these three original shortcuts from the Shortcuts app:

Put Location in a Contact
Show a Contact in Maps
Directions to a Contact

2. Install the free Google Earth app.

3. Add these five new shortcuts:

Put Location in a Contact

Put Coordinates in a Contact

Directions to a Contact

Directions to Home

Show a Contact in Maps

4. NOTES about the five new shortcuts:

Put Location in a Contact – This works from an existing marked place or new dropped Pin in Apple Maps > Share sheet.

Put Coordinates in a Contact – This works from Google Maps share sheet. From a new dropped Pin (not an existing marked place) tap the coordinates to copy them to the clipboard and then Share > Put Coordinates in a Contact. (A new dropped Pin must be used because existing marked places don't show coordinates for copying to the clipboard.)

Directions to a Contact – This works from the Shortcuts app itself or a Contact card > Share Contact.

Directions to Home – This works from the Shortcuts app itself. Your own Home contact card must be put in to the first action in this shortcut.

Show a Contact in Maps – This works from the Shortcuts app itself or a Contact card > Share Contact. It offers to show the Contact's location in either Apple Maps, Google Maps or Google Earth.

...Seychellian ~ Let me know that all the above five shortcuts work so that you're ready for the "holy grail" Reminders shortcuts which I've finished testing.

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Answer 5

Alancito

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Aug 6, 2022 1:47 AM in response to Seychellian

Seychellian wrote: "Grateful if anyone can share their workarounds to make the applications work as they’re designed to work."

The following workaround suggestion won't do the above, but you may be able to put together something that helps...

Apple's Shortcuts app allows you to build custom shortcuts using simple "actions" as building blocks. The Location category in Shortcuts offers many actions – see this screenshot:

As far as I can see, GPS isn't used — only latitude & longitude. Anyway, if Shortcuts interests you, post back here with an example of a difficulty you have with a specific address and we'll see if a custom shortcut can help.

But be aware that, although Shortcuts is simple, there's a lot to it. Like many new endeavors, it takes a willingness to learn through experimentation — and a tolerance for resulting frustration!

Shortcuts User Guide for iPhone and iPad

Shortcuts User Guide for Mac (macOS Monterey)

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Answer 6

Seychellian Author

Level 1

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Sep 7, 2022 4:33 AM in response to Alancito

Thanks for this Alancito. It is very generous of you to give your time like that.

Unfortunately it doesn't help me all that much because having the co-ordinates of the location embedded in the contact doesn't allow me to leverage them in any meaningful way because Apple cant use the co-ordinates intelligently.

For example I added the location of the central post office to it's corresponding contact using your nice shortcut however if I try to tap this address to use it for navigation I get "Directions not available". This applies to every single location I input. If i ask Siri to remind me of something when I reach "insert name here" she replies "It looks like you don't have a work address listed on your contact card" (I do). Even if I go into Maps and click on something which has been listed and ask for directions to it Maps tells me "Directions are not available" (see video at link below).

https://youtu.be/1vS2NJ59qls

It all come down to Maps (and by association contacts) having a format for addresses which we can not format our addresses to as we do not use street names or numbers at all. Its rather frustrating because there are a lot of built in iOS features that we don't have access to because of it. I notice also that Maps itself is very primitive with content. For example there were no Fuel Stations or Hospitals or Police Stations listed until I went out of my way to submit them all to Maps. What's more it decided to list some of them and completely ignore others that i had entered. The only things that seem to be listed are hotels and business trying to market themselves. It seems that Maps relies almost exclusively on user input to populate itself and because we are a developing economy where most people use Android instead of iOS this has just failed to launch.

I can only imagine that there are other people in similar locations (ie most of the world) that experiences this and are frustrated. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has a similar experience and possibly has developed some work arounds.

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Answer 7

Alancito

Level 7

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Sep 17, 2022 10:22 AM in response to Seychellian

Hi Seychellian ~ I've been improving the upcoming Reminders shortcuts. Below are screenshots of running the Remind me Arriving at Contact shortcut. The LL in the Department field of the Museum's contact card has been previously set up via Put Location in a Contact shortcut. Note that the Museum's name and street in the Reminder is automatically generated from the LL. This means that the only thing to type in is the Reminder text. I type it in UPPER CASE so it's easier to read when out on the street. I use a parameter for the distance in meters – I chose 5m, but it's easy to change in the shortcut. So even without traditional street addresses, a Reminder notification is sent when you arrive within 5m of a Contact. And no Contact card is required using the other Remind me Arriving at Pin and Remind me Arriving at Coordinates shortcuts – which work in Maps & Google Maps respectively.

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Answer 8

Alancito

Level 7

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Sep 12, 2022 9:39 AM in response to Seychellian

Seychellian wrote: "...is it possible to make a shortcut to create a reminder from a location? So I can use the shortcut to tell me to do something when I’m at …. Fill in blank (the central post office)?"

I've been working on exactly that (and more) since your previous post. It's nearly ready, but I want to test that it triggers the created reminder when I actually arrive at the physical location. Also, iOS 16 is releasing today, so we both should be installing that before trying these new shortcuts.

"What is important to remember is that the location needs to be referenced to location that is registered on iOS maps and not an address from contacts. The latter can not be formatted correctly and therefore will not be recognised by Siri."

An address from contacts can be recognised by Siri — as long as you've previously put its LL into the Contact via my "Put Location in a Contact" shortcut which you already have. Then you can use these other shortcuts you already have: "Show a Contact in Maps" & "Directions to a Contact". Did you change my "Directions to a Contact" shortcut? — The "Show Driving directions" action in that shortcut should be "using Google Maps" not "using Maps". ...But if directions still don't appear, let me know.

The orange shortcuts below are the new ones I've been working on – they should all be ready in a few days:

The screenshot below is during the running of my new "Remind Me Arriving At Pin" shortcut. As it's initiated via Apple Maps > Pin > Share > Remind Me Arriving At Pin, as far as I know it's not possible to initiate this shortcut via Siri (I tried!) The other three new shortcuts can be initiated via Siri.

And here's the result in Reminders:

...By the way, tapping on those coordinates opens Apple Maps at that location – in case you wanted to confirm exactly where the reminder will be triggered. Also be aware that, if you're considering buying a new iPhone, only the iPhone 14 Pro models have "Precision dual-frequency GPS":

iPhone 14 Pro Models Feature Improved GPS Accuracy

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Answer 9

Seychellian Author

Level 1

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Sep 8, 2022 5:40 AM in response to Alancito

Hi Alancito,

Thanks again. The root of the problem however is with Apple Maps and the fact that it has not yet integrated with our geodata (specifically addresses but also roads and locations).

My attempt to apply your shortcut fix

I would encourage you to navigate to Mahe Seychelles on your iOS Maps app and just try to apply the solutions you are proposing. See if for instance you can create a contact located here that is properly coordinated with its location so that iOS knows where it is (so to speak). I suspect that Apple Maps hasn't even mapped our roads yet as I can choose 2 points on major road here, between which there is clearly a direct route (vehicular and pedestrian) nevertheless Apple Maps returns the old "Directions Not Available" chestnut.

Just to be sure before i posted this i went to DuckDuckGo Maps (which is hosted by Apple Maps) and sought to get directions between our international airport and the centre of our capital (the most rudimentary route i could think of). Both of them can be found as independent entities but when i try to get directions between the two i get an error.

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Answer 10

Seychellian Author

Level 1

11 points

Aug 7, 2022 12:35 AM in response to Alancito

Thanks for you long response. What I would really love to be able to do is to associate an address with its respective contact on my phone. As maps can’t do it using a street address it would suffice for me to extract location data myself (long,lat or GPS) and add it to the contact manually.

The best example of that is my home or office address. I am unable to specify their locations as they don’t have an address that Apple Maps can recognise so instead it just recognises “Seychelles” (which is the whole country) and uses that as “the location”. It turns out that Seychelles for them is in the middle of the ocean (between islands. I guess in the geographic center of the archipelago). Anyhow every address in my contacts returns the same location. If I ask Siri to get directions to “my office” it returns an error because I’m technically asking to be driven into the middle

of the ocean.

if I could add locations on Maps or tell contacts that this is the specific location of, for example the petrol station, then at least I could slowly collect a body of addresses which are most relevant to me for me to be able to use with iOS GPS features.

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Answer 11

Seychellian Author

Level 1

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Sep 10, 2022 9:15 AM in response to Alancito

Thanks for this. It does indeed work albeit in a roundabout way. I almost exclusively use Google Maps to navigate.

My focus on maps is not that it’s my prefers navigation app. It is because it appear this is what Apple integrates all its iOS geo data with.

The holy grail is to be able to use geolocation data with Siri. Specifically I would like to be able to set up home and work address and tell Siri to remind me about things when I arrive in certain places.

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Answer 12

Seychellian Author

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Sep 12, 2022 8:11 AM in response to Alancito

Further to my last post I thought of a possible work around that could work.

is it possible to make a shortcut to create a reminder from a location? So I can use the shortcut to tell me to do something when I’m at …. Fill in blank (the central post office)?

What is important to remember is that the location needs to be referenced to location that is registered on iOS maps and not an address from contacts. The latter can not be formatted correctly and therefore will not be recognised by Siri.

if you have an ideas how to do that it would be immensely appreciated.

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Answer 13

Seychellian Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 14, 2022 9:53 AM in response to Alancito

Also, iOS 16 is releasing today, so we both should be installing that before trying these new shortcuts

Done!

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Using iOS GPS features without street addresses

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