What is an Intent in Android?

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An Intent is an “intention” to perform an action; in other words,

a messaging object you can use to request an action from another app component

An Intent is basically a message to say you did or want something to happen. Depending on the intent, apps or the OS might be listening for it and will react accordingly. Think of it as a blast email to a bunch of friends, in which you tell your friend John to do something, or to friends who can do X (“intent filters”), to do X. The other folks will ignore the email, but John (or friends who can do X) will react to it.

To listen for an broadcast intent (like the phone ringing, or an SMS is received), you implement a broadcast receiver, which will be passed the intent. To declare that you can handle another’s app intent like “take picture”, you declare an intent filter in your app’s manifest file.

If you want to fire off an intent to do something, like pop up the dialer, you fire off an intent saying you will.

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