Android Intents: Explicit vs Implicit Explained with Examples for Beginners

If you are building an Android application, you must understand how intents work

Today we`ll learn about the two types of Intents in Android: Explicit and Implicit intents It is easy to understand the language

What is an Intent?

An Intent is a way to request an action from another app

• Open Camera
• Start a new Activity
• Share a message

 Explicit Intent

An Explicit intent is used to invoke the activity class, such as sending data from one activity to another activity

Example:

val intent = Intent(this, CheckBoxActivity::class.java)
intent.putExtra("title", "Welcome To Second Screen")
startActivity(intent)

Passing data between activities and Kotlin

Project Structure:

MainActivity: The entry screen is where you click a button to go to another screen.

SecondActivity: A screen that receives a message and displays it. It also lets you navigate back to MainActivity.

XML Design:-

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android=”http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android”
xmlns:app=”http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto”
xmlns:tools=”http://schemas.android.com/tools”
android:id=”@+id/main”
android:layout_width=”match_parent”
android:layout_height=”match_parent”
tools:context=”.MainActivity”>


<Button
android:id=”@+id/textView”
android:layout_width=”0dp”
android:layout_height=”wrap_content”
android:layout_margin=”20dp”
android:gravity=”center”
android:text=”Go To Next”
android:textColor=”@color/white”
android:textSize=”25sp”
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf=”parent”
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf=”parent”
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias=”1.0″
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf=”parent”
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf=”parent” />


</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Code MainActivity:-

package com.programmingkeeda.kotlindemo

import android.content.Intent
import android.os.Bundle
import android.widget.Button
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    lateinit var textView: Button

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
        textView = findViewById<Button>(R.id.textView)

        val title = intent.getStringExtra("title")

        if (title != null) {
            textView.text = title
        }
        textView.setOnClickListener {
            val intent = Intent(this, SecondActivity::class.java)
            intent.putExtra("title", "Welcome To Second Screen")
            startActivity(intent)
        }

      
    }
}

XML Design:-

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/main"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".SecondActivity">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView2"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:text="Welcome to Second Activity"
        android:textColor="@color/black"
        android:textSize="24sp"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/btnGoBack"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.0"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintVertical_bias="0.544" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/btnGoBack"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="25dp"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:text="Go Back"
        android:textColor="@color/white"
        android:textSize="25sp"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintVertical_bias="0.318" />

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

Code SecondActivity:-

package com.programmingkeeda.kotlindemo

import android.content.Intent
import android.os.Bundle
import android.widget.Button
import android.widget.TextView
import androidx.activity.enableEdgeToEdge
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import androidx.core.view.ViewCompat
import androidx.core.view.WindowInsetsCompat

class SecondActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    lateinit var textView2: TextView
    lateinit var btnGoBack: Button
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_second)

        textView2 = findViewById<TextView>(R.id.textView2)
        btnGoBack = findViewById<Button>(R.id.btnGoBack)

        val title = intent.getStringExtra("title")
        textView2.text = title


        btnGoBack.setOnClickListener {
            val secondActivity = Intent(this, MainActivity::class.java)
            secondActivity.putExtra("title", "Go To Second Activity")
            startActivity(secondActivity)
        }

    }
}

Implicit Intent

The Implicit intent is used to invoke the system components. like send email, send SMS, etc

Example:

val intent = Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(“https://www.programmingkeeda.com/”))
startActivity(intent)