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Don't play along by calling it "toast". It's a pop-up that's been re-branded to avoid the stigma of the old name, exactly like what companies do to themselves after causing a disaster like an oil spill.




You are conflating two similar but different UI elements.

A popup is a larger object, often a full window, that covers large parts of other elements or sometimes the entire screen. They are sometimes modal.

A toast is a smaller element, appearing (often by sliding into view upwards, hence the cutesy name) in or above a specific notification area of the application or the overall OS. These are much smaller, seldom modal and often convey useful notifications or warnings, unlike popups (especially modal ones) that are often either useless or actively, deliberately, in the way.

While it is correct to call then both popups if you wish, "toasts" are generally considered a specific subset.


To me the first would be called a modal window or a message box, while the latter is what I would call a popup. I guess different exposure with different UI kits.



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