Types of intents

Intents are divided into two groups: a) Explicit intents: These explicitly specify the name of the target component to handle the intent; in these, the optional ‘component name’ fiHlG (aERYH) is sHW WR a SarWiFular YaluH, through the setComponent() or setClass() methods. Implicit intents: These do not specify a target component, but include enough information for the system to determine which of the available components is best to run for that intent. Consider an app that lists the available restaurants near you. When you click a particular restaurant option, the application has to ask another application to display the route to that restaurant. To achieve this, it could either send an explicit intent directly to the ‘Google Maps’ application, or send an implicit intent, which would be delivered to any application that provides the ‘Maps’ functionality (e.g., Yahoo Maps).

b)

c) Sticky Broadcast: This is retained by the system even after it has been sent; this means that whenever you register a receiver for these intents, you will get a ‘cached’ copy of the intent that was recently sent. ACTION_BATTERY_ CHANGED, an intent that describes the changes in battery status, is a good example of a sticky broadcast.