What Is A Broadcast Receiver In Android Development?

A Broadcast Receiver is a component in Android that listens for changes in the device's state. These changes include things like battery level changes, the screen turning off, or a new SMS message arriving.

Think of a Broadcast Receiver as a kind of messenger. It waits for certain messages (called broadcasts) and then reacts when those messages arrive.

Use cases

Broadcast Receivers are useful for many reasons. Here are a few examples:

1. Responding to System Events: You can use a Broadcast Receiver to respond to important system events. For example, your app can save data when the device is about to shut down.

2. Communicating Between Apps: Broadcast Receivers can help different apps communicate with each other. For example, an app can send a broadcast to let other apps know that new data is available.

3. Optimizing Battery Usage: By using Broadcast Receivers, your app can only perform actions when certain events happen, which can help save battery life.

Creating Broadcast Receiver

Using a Broadcast Receiver in your Android app is quite simple. There are two main steps:

1. Define the Broadcast Receiver: You need to create a class that extends BroadcastReceiver and override the onReceive method. This method will define what happens when the broadcast is received.

✅ Wrap📋
01: public class MyBroadcastReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
02:     @Override
03:     public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
04:         // This code will run when the broadcast is received
05:         Toast.makeText(context, "Broadcast Received!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
06:     }
07: }

2. Register the Broadcast Receiver: You need to register your Broadcast Receiver. You can do this in two ways: in the AndroidManifest.xml file or dynamically in your code.

Register in AndroidManifest.xml

Add the following lines to your AndroidManifest.xml file:

✅ Wrap📋
01: <receiver android:name=".MyBroadcastReceiver">
02:     <intent-filter>
03:         <action android:name="android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED" />
04:     </intent-filter>
05: </receiver>

Register Dynamically in Code

You can also register the receiver in your activity or service:

✅ Wrap📋
01: MyBroadcastReceiver receiver = new MyBroadcastReceiver();
02: IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter(Intent.ACTION_BOOT_COMPLETED);
03: registerReceiver(receiver, filter);

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