How to share an exact house location on WhatsApp

In many taman, whole rows of houses look alike, and the pin a map app gives an address often lands on the road or in the middle of a block, not on the right gate. In a kampung, many houses have no number at all. So the delivery rider, the relative visiting for the first time or the aircond technician ends up calling you from the end of the road.

A pin dropped on the gate itself avoids that. A pin is a pair of coordinates, so it doesn’t depend on how the address is written, or on whether the house has one.

1. Find the house. Open Google Maps and search for the street or the area. Tap the layers button and choose Satellite, so you can see the roofs, gates and driveways.
2. Drop a pin on the gate. Zoom in until you can see the house clearly, then press and hold on its gate, or on the road just in front of it. A red pin appears, with a card about it at the bottom of the screen.
3. Check it. Make sure the pin is on the right house and at the entrance you want people to use: the front gate, not the back lane. If it’s off, press and hold again in the right spot.
4. Share it. On the pin’s card, tap Share (swipe the card up if you can’t see the button), choose WhatsApp, then pick the chat.
5. Add the landmark. Before you send, add one line people can check from the road, for example “Green house, black gate, next to the surau”.
6. Send a photo of the gate if you have one. A photo taken from the road is often the quickest way to recognise the right house.

When they tap the link, Google Maps opens at your pin, ready for directions.

Many drivers prefer Waze. You can send them a Waze link to the same pin:

1. Swipe up the card of the pin you dropped. Its coordinates are listed there, for example 3.1438, 101.68482. Tap them to copy them.
2. In the chat, type https://waze.com/ul?ll=, then the coordinates without the space, then &navigate=yes. For example: https://waze.com/ul?ll=3.1438,101.68482&navigate=yes.
3. Send it. Tapping the link opens Waze with directions to that point.

When you are at the house yourself, WhatsApp can send where your phone is: in the chat, tap the attach button, choose Location, then send your current location. WhatsApp shows how accurate it is. Outdoors it is usually within a few metres; indoors or under a roof it can be much less precise, so step out to the gate first.

Don’t use live location for a house. It follows your phone for as long as you choose, so the pin moves when you leave.

• One pin per entrance. A corner house with two gates, or a shop that takes deliveries at the back, needs a note saying which entrance to use.
• Flats and condos: pin the guardhouse or the lobby, and write the block, floor and unit number in the note.
• Kampung roads: describe the turn as well as the house, such as “turn in after the sundry shop, third house on the left”.
• Pin it in the group. In a family WhatsApp group, pin the location message so it stays at the top of the chat.