A standard toast notification appears at the bottom of the screen aligned in horizontal centre. You can change this position with the setGravity(int, int, int). This accepts three parameters: a Gravity constant, an x-position offset, and a y-position offset.

For example, if you decide that the toast should appear in the top-left corner, you can set the gravity like this:

toast.setGravity(Gravity.TOP|Gravity.LEFT, 0, 0);

In Android, a Toast is a simple UI element that can be used to give contextual feedback to a user.

To display a simple Toast message, we can do the following.

// Declare the parameters to use for the Toast

Context context = getApplicationContext(); 
// in an Activity, you may also use "this"
// in a fragment, you can use getActivity()

CharSequence message = "I'm an Android Toast!";
int duration = Toast.LENGTH_LONG; // Toast.LENGTH_SHORT is the other option

// Create the Toast object, and show it!
Toast myToast = Toast.makeText(context, message, duration);
myToast.show();

Or, to show a Toast inline, without holding on to the Toast object you can:

Toast.makeText(context, "Ding! Your Toast is ready.", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

IMPORTANT: Make sure that the show() method is called from the UI thread. If you're trying to show a Toast from a different thread you can e.g. use runOnUiThread method of an Activity.

Failing to do so, meaning trying to modify the UI by creating a Toast, will throw a RuntimeException which will look like this:

java.lang.RuntimeException: Can't create handler inside thread that has not called Looper.prepare()

The simplest way of handling this exception is just by using runOnUiThread: syntax is shown below.

   runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            // Your code here
        }
    });

If you don't want to use the default Toast view, you can provide your own using the setView(View) method on a Toast object.

First, create the XML layout you would like to use in your Toast.

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/toast_layout_root"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:padding="8dp"
    android:background="#111">

    <TextView android:id="@+id/title"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textColor="#FFF"/>

    <TextView android:id="@+id/description"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textColor="#FFF"/>

</LinearLayout>

Then, when creating your Toast, inflate your custom View from XML, and call setView

// Inflate the custom view from XML
LayoutInflater inflater = getLayoutInflater();
View layout = inflater.inflate(R.layout.custom_toast_layout,
                               (ViewGroup) findViewById(R.id.toast_layout_root));

// Set the title and description TextViews from our custom layout
TextView title = (TextView) layout.findViewById(R.id.title);
title.setText("Toast Title");

TextView description = (TextView) layout.findViewById(R.id.description);
description.setText("Toast Description");

// Create and show the Toast object

Toast toast = new Toast(getApplicationContext());
toast.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER, 0, 0);
toast.setDuration(Toast.LENGTH_LONG);
toast.setView(layout);
toast.show();

public class MainApplication extends Application {
    
    private static Context context; //application context

    private Handler mainThreadHandler;
    private Toast toast;

    public Handler getMainThreadHandler() {
        if (mainThreadHandler == null) {
            mainThreadHandler = new Handler(Looper.getMainLooper());
        }
        return mainThreadHandler;
    }

    @Override public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        context = this;
    }
       
    public static MainApplication getApp(){
        return (MainApplication) context;
    }

    /**
     * Thread safe way of displaying toast.
     * @param message
     * @param duration
     */
    public void showToast(final String message, final int duration) {
        getMainThreadHandler().post(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                if (!TextUtils.isEmpty(message)) {
                    if (toast != null) {
                        toast.cancel(); //dismiss current toast if visible
                        toast.setText(message);
                    } else {
                        toast = Toast.makeText(App.this, message, duration);
                    }
                    toast.show();
                }
            }
        });
    }

Remember to add MainApplication in manifest.

Now call it from any thread to display a toast message.

MainApplication.getApp().showToast("Some message", Toast.LENGTH_LONG);

By default, Android will display Toast messages at the bottom of the screen even if the keyboard is showing. This will show a Toast message just above the keyboard.

public void showMessage(final String message, final int length) {
    View root = findViewById(android.R.id.content);
    Toast toast = Toast.makeText(this, message, length);
    int yOffset = Math.max(0, root.getHeight() - toast.getYOffset());
    toast.setGravity(Gravity.TOP | Gravity.CENTER_HORIZONTAL, 0, yOffset);
    toast.show();
}

If you don't want to extend Application and keep your toast messages thread safe, make sure you show them in the post execute section of your AsyncTasks.

public class MyAsyncTask extends AsyncTask <Void, Void, Void> {

    @Override
    protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {
        // Do your background work here
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(Void aVoid) {
        // Show toast messages here
        Toast.makeText(context, "Ding! Your Toast is ready.",   Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
    
}