Link description appearing instead of the actual link

Missouri Jo wrote:

Why do I get an explanation of a link on a website instead of the link?

Because the Apple people who run this site thought it would be a good idea.

Most web sites have an embedded title. That is what's used to populate the tab titles in your web browser, for example. And if you view your browsing history, you'll see those titles too. They are much more convenient than a cryptic URL.

However, you do have to be a bit careful when a link is constructed this way. The actual link might not correspond to the title. This is how scammers and malware distributors work. If you move your mouse pointer over a link, you should see a popup tooltip either on the link or down in the bottom left corner of your browser window telling you the actual URL. It's always a good idea to use that to ensure the link is safe.

In fact, you should always do this even if the link looks like a URL. Maybe the URL you see is fake and the link directs you to some different site.

On this website, Apple is pretty good at blocking and removing deceptive links. But elsewhere on the internet, always use caution.

If you mean the text you see on the webpage is a description instead of the actual web address, that’s usually how the website created the link. A link can display descriptive text while still opening the correct URL when you tap it.

If something different is happening, could you give an example of what you see and what you expected to see? That would help narrow it down.

Is this happening on the iPhone 15 in your equipment profile, or another Apple device?

Are you asking about linked text in a sentence or paragraph, as this example?:

"To get a repair cost estimate, please go to this Apple support page and use the estimator there."

The blue text in the example is a user-friendly, plain-English link that goes to this "machine-friendly" web address, or "url":

If on a Mac computer, seeing a true url can be browser dependent. On the Mac with Safari, turning on the status bar from the View menu shows the full url for a shortcut when you hover the cursor over the shortcut. Example: on my Mac running Safari, when I hover over your user name "Missouri Jo" in the "Author" field, my status bar show this:

That is the full url of your username here.

And yes, if something else, we could use more details about your device, its OS version, and what apps this affects.

Missouri Jo wrote:

Why do I get an explanation of a link on a website instead of the link?

In what situation? What are you doing when this happens?

If you paste a link from another Apple page to a post here in the forums, it will be automatically formatted with the link description. But the link still works.

For example:

Product Feedback - Apple

I posted the bare link but the forum software put in the link description. I imagine that there are other situations in which this would happen. If you click on that, it will take you exactly where it's supposed to.