USB-C is a newer port type officially announced in 2014, although it took several years for the ports to reach widespread consumer devices, as we see today.
Note that there are also subsets of this design, like USB Mini-A and USB Micro-A, with different port designs, but these aren’t as important for our current discussion. There are USB-B to USB-B cables, but they’re rarely used. USB type B is mainly for external peripherals, with a USB-A connection on one end and a USB-B connection. Type B connections also are easy to recognize because of their square shape with rounded corners on one side, almost like the shape of a tiny house.
The USB-B connector is the receptor port on the USB device you are connecting to the host computer. Interestingly, there is no USB-B host port. This arrangement creates the infamous, one-sided USB connection that only works with the cable perfectly inserted - no matter how many times you have to try. It’s a horizontal port with the bottom portion dedicated to pin connectors. USB-A is a traditional USB host port design and one of the easiest to recognize on devices.
Every USB connection makes up a port in the host device, a connecting cable, and a receptor device. USB Type-A connections refer to the physical design of the USB port.
