Summary

A Toast is a momentary popup which provides simple feedback about an operation¹. Toasts are added to an application's WindowManager and are not bound to an activity's UI; therefore, a Toast can remain visible after an Activity is navigated away from.

Toasts are typically displayed by using the makeText() method:

   // also supports Toast.LENGTH_LONG
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "some message", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

Sample Toast:-

It is important to note that the duration parameter requires either the LENGTH_LONG or LENGTH_SHORT . A custom millisecond value is not a valid duration parameter.

Custom Toasts

Toasts can use a custom View by using the setView() method³.

Usage

Toast messages should be as unobtrusive as possible⁴. Toasts should be used in situations that necessitate the user to be notified of certain background tasks such as a setting or draft being saved. Generally, Toasts should not exceed a single line of text.

Further reading

Toast overview

Toast developer guide

Toast code

Image Source and Brief guide

References:

¹http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/notifiers/toasts.html [Accessed on March 10, 2015]

²http://grepcode.com/file/repository.grepcode.com/java/ext/com.google.android/android/5.0.2_r1/android/widget/Toast.java#Toast.0LENGTH_SHORT [Accessed on March 10, 2015]

³http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/notifiers/toasts.html#CustomToastView [Accessed on March 10, 2015]

⁴http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/Toast.html [Accessed on March 10, 2015]