An intent facilitates inter-activity communication. Intents can be considered messengers within an Android application. They are messaging objects that are used to request actions from application components. Intents can be used for actions, such as requesting the start of an activity and delivering broadcasts, within the Android system environment.

There are two types of intents. These are:

• Implicit intents
• Explicit intents

Implicit intents: These are messenger objects that do not specifically identify an application component to perform an action, but specify an action to be performed and allow a component that may exist in another application to perform the action. The components that can handle an action requested implicitly are identified by the Android system.

Explicit intents: These intents specify explicitly the application component that should perform an action. These can be used to perform actions, such as starting an activity, within your application: