Suggestion: Unify Assets, Linked Layers and Symbols

[k_au]

In my opinion, Affinity should treat assets, symbols and linked layers the same way and use the same name across all the apps.
The differences between these are not big, and I would love to have the best ideas in all apps.

As an example, I was working in Publisher and needed to switch to the Designer Persona to create "symbols". Why? Because Publisher's  "assets" seem to not allow you to change the original in one place and automatically update all instances. 
I think that this functionality should be possible with "assets" as well. I haven't been using Photo's "linked layers" yet, but from what I have read and seen, it's basically the same feature, but again with a different name and user interface. I do not see the need to have three different user interfaces and names for what is essentially the same feature in the three apps.

[fde101]

Assets are stored independently of the document so that they can be reused between documents.

Symbols are stored within a document so that updating it can be reflected by other instances of the symbol.  Thus they cannot be shared between documents, just as global colors cannot be shared between documents - it is not practical to do that in any sane manner.

Consequently these two cannot be "unified".

The closest you can get to a symbol shared between documents right now is a linked image, which has limitations and complications of its own, but also unique benefits.

I agree that "linked layers" and "symbols" probably should be unified with each other.