Twitter Bootstrap: Popover vs Tooltip?

Question

Popovers require Tooltips to be included. Aside from the visual difference, popovers have an option to display both a title and content, while tooltips only have an option to display a title.

Semantically, you'd typically want to use popovers to provide additional related information. You'd use tooltips for clarification or tips.

Popovers

• short or long
• can contain all kinds of content (e.g. images, headers, lists)
• usually dismissable, available on click or hover
• allow for additional interaction (e.g. buttons)
• meant to give additional related context regarding the thing focused

Tooltips

• short
• just small amount of text (no other types of content)
• usually available only on hover
• meant to clarify or help you use the thing focused

A similar post from UX SE which explains well when to use which.

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Technically, there isn't much of a difference. They both work similarly. You can use data- attributes or JS for either.

They work using the same library and so have a lot of the same options for interaction (hover/focus, content inclusion, side on which to appear, etc.).

Code example:

$(function() {
  $('.favorite').tooltip({
    placement: "right",
    title: "Click to mark as favorite question (click again to undo)"
  });

  $('.demo-start').popover({
    content: `
        <p>Walk through the components step by step! In this guide, you'll:</p>
        <ol>
          <li>Learn the semantics</li>
          <li>Learn the code</li>
          <li>Examine use cases</li>
        </ol>
        <div class="btn-group text-light d-flex justify-content-end" role="group" aria-label="Navigation buttons">
          <button type="button" class="btn btn-secondary" disabled><i class="fas fa-arrow-left mr-1"></i> Previous</button>
          <button type="button" class="btn btn-secondary">Next <i class="fas fa-arrow-right ml-1"></i></button>
        </div>
        `,
    html: true,
    placement: 'right',
    title: 'Welcome to the Tour!',
    trigger: 'hover focus'
  });
});

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-Gn5384xqQ1aoWXA+058RXPxPg6fy4IWvTNh0E263XmFcJlSAwiGgFAW/dAiS6JXm" crossorigin="anonymous">
<link href="https://use.fontawesome.com/releases/v5.0.6/css/all.css" rel="stylesheet">

<a class="demo-start btn btn-dark m-5" href="#" role="button">
    <i class="fas fa-play text-light mr-1"> </i> Start the Demo</a>
<br>
<i class="favorite fas fa-star m-5 text-secondary"></i>


<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.2.1.slim.min.js" integrity="sha384-KJ3o2DKtIkvYIK3UENzmM7KCkRr/rE9/Qpg6aAZGJwFDMVNA/GpGFF93hXpG5KkN" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.12.9/umd/popper.min.js" integrity="sha384-ApNbgh9B+Y1QKtv3Rn7W3mgPxhU9K/ScQsAP7hUibX39j7fakFPskvXusvfa0b4Q" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity="sha384-JZR6Spejh4U02d8jOt6vLEHfe/JQGiRRSQQxSfFWpi1MquVdAyjUar5+76PVCmYl" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

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Popvers are just an extension to tooltips that look a little different and are designed for more content.

For example, popovers have a header and content section but tooltips are just content.