# Question about "Introduction to Promises"

**URL:** <https://talk.observablehq.com/t/question-about-introduction-to-promises/836>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [June 3, 2018, 9:17pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/question-about-introduction-to-promises/836 "2018-06-03T21:17:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bgchen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/bgchen/32/784_2.png) [@bgchen](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/bgchen)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 9:17pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/question-about-introduction-to-promises/836/1 "2018-06-03T21:17:43Z")

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There’s a statement I’m confused by on the tutorial page [“Introduction to Promises”](https://beta.observablehq.com/@mbostock/introduction-to-promises):

> The implicit await of promises only happens across cell boundaries. So, if you create a promise and then refer to it within the same cell, you’ll see the Promise object and not the resolved value:

However, in the following cell, if I change `return promise + "world!";` to `return promise;`, the value does resolve after 3 seconds.

Does this mean that this simpler reference is not an “implicit” await but rather an explicit one?

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**Author:** ![mbostock](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/mbostock/32/9_2.png) [@mbostock](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/mbostock)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 9:29pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/question-about-introduction-to-promises/836/2 "2018-06-03T21:29:26Z")

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When you say `return promise;` there’s no implicit await; the cell returns the Promise. But, it _looks_ equivalent to `return await promise;` because the inspector waits for the returned promise to resolve before displaying the value.