When to use anchor suffix icon?

[jess-watson]

Apologies if this is covered somewhere and I missed it! Is there guidance around when to use the LinkExternal icon in the suffix of an anchor as opposed to using no icon? I assume that if we're linking to another section in the app, we should use no icon, and if we're linking to an external page like product documentation we should use the icon, but want to confirm!

[dosubot[bot]]

Hey there, @jess-watson! Fancy seeing you here again. I see you've got another puzzle for us to solve together. Give me a moment to dive into your question about the LinkExternal icon, and I'll be back with some insights shortly.

[TwilioPasteBot]

Disclaimer: This is a very experimental bot using OpenAI's GPT-4. The answers may not be correct, a human will review the answer and update it if necessary.

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Based on the provided sections from the Paste documentation, the guidance around when to use the LinkExternal icon in the suffix of an anchor is as follows:

• Use the LinkExternal icon when linking to an external page. This is indicated by the showExternal property on the Anchor component, which automatically adds a very similar external link icon. This is suitable for links that navigate away from the current application to a different domain or product documentation. The presence of the LinkExternal icon helps users understand that clicking the link will take them to an external site. Here's how you can use it:

import {Anchor} from '@twilio-paste/core/anchor';

<Anchor href="https://external-link.com" showExternal>
  External Link
</Anchor>

• Do not use an icon when linking to another section within the same application. In this case, a plain anchor without any icon is more appropriate as it indicates an internal navigation.

For more details, you can refer to the Anchor component documentation: https://paste.twilio.design/components/anchor#external-anchor.

This approach helps maintain a clear distinction between internal and external navigation for users, improving the overall user experience by setting the right expectations before a link is clicked.

I also did a search, and I managed to find these other Discussions that might be similar or related to your question. Give them a read to see if they answer your question. If they do, head back here and update this discussion and mark it as answered, pointing others to the related discussion:

• SidebarNavigationItem: Is LinkExternalIcon automatically provided? (updated: 10/25/2023, similarity score: 87%)
• Request to add a diagonal top right arrow icon - Answer (updated: 02/15/2024, similarity score: 86%)
• Prefix vs suffix icon button (updated: 11/08/2023, similarity score: 86%)