The color-coding is not always adhered to, Paul. For USB-C, on the host device, you’ll can generally expect it to be USB 3.0 (USB 3.2 Gen 1), faster speeds will come with a number near the port itself, such as 10Gbps or 20 Gbps, etc. Also on a host, all USB-C ports can deliver power and you’ll also see a power icon near the port for the one that can be used for powering the host itself — unless it’s the device’s only power port.

According to wikihow, most USB cable manufacturers use a color-coding system to distinguish which USB standard the cable is using. The color of the plastic piece inside the metal plug of a USB-A connector provides the intended cable data speed and power output.

* White: USB 1.0 (Data speed up to 12 Mbps, power output: 5V, 0.5A, 2.5W).
* Black: USB 2.0 (Data speed up to 480 Mbps, power output: 5V, 0.5A, 2.5W).
* Blue: USB 3.0 (Data speed up to 5 Gbps, power output: 5V, 0.5-0.9A 4.5W).
* Teal: USB 3.1 (Data speed up to 10 Gbps, power output: 5-48V, 0.5-5A, up to 240W).
* Red: USB 3.2 (Data speed up to 20 Gbps, power output: 5-48V, 0.5-5A, up to 240W).
* Yellow: High Power USB 2.0 and 3.0 (fast charging).
* Orange: Charge-only USB 3.0

Will there be something comparable for the USB-C connectors?

Second this.
But then we get into the whole “fastcharge” thing which means different things to different devices. The cable matters here, and all UCB C’s look the same.
In my case, I have LG vXX phones which use the Qualcomm chip, which supports QC 1 to now 5.0, IIRC. My V60 supports QC 4 which means under the right conditions it’ll support up to around 2.6A charging rate, nearly double what I can expect from the V30 and its QC 3.0.
Fortunately I have the double-ended USB C cable and wall wart that came with the V60 and I can use an app like AccuBattery to verify its charge rate. But that cable looks like all the other USB C cables clogging up the bin most of which won’t provide a QC 4.0 charge rate. Anker cables come closest but you need to check to see what’s meant by “fastcharge” in the marketing.

Then there’s a fastboot cable in there somewhere that’s also not labeled…

You can use any and the charging and USB data functions will work. Other than that, Thunderbolt cable comes with a TB icon on each end.

When all ports uses the same connector, no one will know what one to use given a box of cables…

If the cable doesn’t charge consistently, it’s generally bad cable, George. There are a lot of bad USB cables out there since, as mentioned, the standard is less stringent. A good USB-C cable should work with anything USB-C-related. One thing to note is that when a cable is plugged in, don’t make other end wet, that will render the cable bad if not useless.

👍

That’s correct, Peter. USB 3.2 gen 2×2 came out much later than TB3.