Cover: original AI-generated concept illustration, not a screenshot of a working product. The durations are discussion examples, not recommendations.
A photographer shares an unpublished property-photo preview on Friday. The agent opens it on Monday, after the link has expired. A longer lifetime would reduce friction, but the link could also be forwarded.
For a small client-review tool, which approach would you choose?
- A short-lived direct link, with a clear way to request a new one.
- A longer review window with an explicit expiry notice.
- An authenticated review page that issues short-lived asset links after checking access.
AWS documents that S3 presigned URLs act as bearer tokens and can expire earlier when their underlying credentials expire: official S3 guidance. That distinction matters when the UI promises a review window. Expiry also cannot recall a file someone has already downloaded.
What should the recipient see after expiry, and how would you make recovery easy without silently extending access? I would favour a clear expiry message and an explicit renewal path, but I am interested in the trade-offs for clients who do not want another account.
This is a hypothetical design question, not a claim about any product’s current implementation.