This is the class which describes what action is desired. A basic example is to move from one screen to another, and many other UI functions are implementsed as Intents. Note that intents are not only for UI features though. An Intent generates a URI - this is done to allow different intents fto be easily overriden by the runtime system, including the default ones Android itself supplies.

IntentFilters are like marshalls, they direct Intents to their handlers. An intent filter lists a set of requirements, such as data type, action requested, and URI format, that the Intent or message must fulfill. For Activities, Android searches for the Activity with the most closely matching valid match between the Intent and the activity filter. For messages, Android will forward a message to all receivers with matching intent filters.