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copied!<p><strong>Toast</strong> and <strong>Intent</strong>, both requires reference to <em>context</em>. And <strong>getApplication</strong>, <strong>getApplicationContext</strong>, <strong>LoginActivity.this</strong> and <strong>getBaseContext</strong>, they all offer reference to the context.</p> <p>Now the thing confuses is the declaration of different contexts and their specific-usage. To make things simple, you should count two types of context available in the Android framework.</p> <ol> <li>Application Context</li> <li>Activity Context</li> </ol> <p><strong>Application</strong> context is attached to the application's life-cycle and will always be same throughout the life of application. So if you are using <em>Toast</em>, you can use application context or even activity context (both) because a toast can be raised from anywhere with in your application and is not attached to a window.</p> <p><strong>Activity</strong> context is attached to the Activity's life-cycle and can be destroyed if the activity's <code>onDestroy()</code> is raised. If you want to launch a new activity, you must need to use activity's context in its <em>Intent</em> so that the new launching activity is connected to the current activity (in terms of activity stack). However, you may use application's context too to launch a new activity but then you need to set flag <code>Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK</code> in intent to treat it as a new task.</p> <p><em>Now referring to your cases:</em></p> <p><code>LoginActivity.this</code> though its referring to your own class which extends Activity class but the base class (Activity) also extends Context class, so it can be used to offer activity context.</p> <p><code>getApplication()</code> though its referring to Application object but the Application class extends Context class, so it can be used to offer application context.</p> <p><code>getApplicationContext()</code> offers application context.</p> <p><code>getBaseContext()</code> offers activity context.</p> <blockquote> <p><b>Tips: Whenever you need to manipulate <code>Views</code> then go for <em>Activity-Context</em>, else <em>Application-Context</em> would be enough.</b></p> </blockquote>

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