Creating Email and Phone Links

A printed business card lists an email address and a phone number, and the person who holds the card must copy them by hand into a mail program or a phone. A web page can do better. The same <a> element that opens other pages can also start a new email or a phone call, so the reader only has to click or tap.

The difference is in the first part of the href value. A web address starts with https:. An email link starts with mailto:, and a phone link starts with tel:. That first part is the scheme, which you met with absolute URLs in the first lesson of this chapter