Understanding the Meaning of "Broadcast"

Development Basics|Android Developers

Broadcast Receiver

A broadcast receiver is a component that only receives and addresses broadcast communications.Most broadcasts are originally system code, and are used to communicate, for example, time zone changes, low battery levels, photos taken, and language settings changed by users.Applications can also broadcast to other applications that, for example, some data has been downloaded and made available to the device.

Applications can configure any number of broadcast receivers to respond to any contact they think is important.All receivers are an extension of the BroadcastReceiver base class.

The broadcast receiver does not display the user interface.However, you may initiate activity in response to information you receive, or you may use NotificationManager to send alerts to users.There are a number of ways to alert users to notifications, including flashing backlights, starting vibrations, and making sounds.Typically, you display a persistent icon in the status bar so that users can open it to retrieve messages.

I think it is broadcast because there is no destination in inter-application messaging.