Handling Notifications

Android is designed to run on portable devices that are carried everywhere and used in sporadic bursts. To ensure that users get the full benefit of these devices, Android supplies a robust set of notification techniques to ensure that users are immediately aware of any events. This section covers the notification options in order of increasing interruption to the user.

Toasts

A toast is the most basic and least intrusive notification. This is a simple message that is flashed on the screen for a short time (typically 5 to 10 seconds). It’s intended to give the user immediate feedback on some event that is relevant to their current situation. For example, if a social networking app is attempting to update a user’s status, it could use a toast to inform the user when the status is successfully updated. Figure 3.4 shows an example toast.