What is an Android Intent, and what security characteristic makes it fundamentally different from a direct Java method call?

• A.A direct method call travels through Binder IPC while an Intent bypasses the driver completely, and the shortcut is what makes an Intent faster to dispatch (the framework copies the extras straight into the target's heap); the tradeoff is a weaker boundary, since no permission check runs on the copy
• B.An Intent is sandboxed at the UID boundary and carries data inside a single app alone, because the framework strips extras when the target uid differs from the sender's (Parcel drops unrecognized types at the boundary); a system Intent is the one form that crosses apps, so the practical difference from a method call is scope
• C.An Intent payload is protected by TLS between the sender and the system_server relay, and the encryption is what separates it from a direct method call (Binder negotiates a session key at transaction start); a receiving component sees plaintext, so the exposure lands entirely on the receiver's own handling