Android的消息机制主要是指Handler的运行机制，Handler的运行需要底层的MessageQueue和Looper的支撑。
下面用一张图描述整个消息机制：

Handler

用来发送和接收消息。创建Handler对象时需要确保当前线程存在一个Looper，否则会抛出异常。Activity、Service在创建的时候已经帮我们创建好了Looper，所以我们不需要创建Looper。在其它线程如果需要使用Handler则需要创建Looper，如下所示：

Looper.prepare();
new Handler().obtainMessage(1).sendToTarget();
Looper.loop();

Looper.prepare()方法用来给当前线程设置新创建的Looper对象，Looper的构造方法里创建MessageQueue。Looper类部分源码如下：

    private Looper(boolean quitAllowed) {
        mQueue = new MessageQueue(quitAllowed);
        mThread = Thread.currentThread();
    }

/** Initialize the current thread as a looper.
      * This gives you a chance to create handlers that then reference
      * this looper, before actually starting the loop. Be sure to call
      * {@link #loop()} after calling this method, and end it by calling
      * {@link #quit()}.
      */
    public static void prepare() {
        prepare(true);
    }

    private static void prepare(boolean quitAllowed) {
        if (sThreadLocal.get() != null) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Only one Looper may be created per thread");
        }
        sThreadLocal.set(new Looper(quitAllowed));
    }

Looper.loop()方法用来循环从消息队列获取消息，Looper部分代码如下：

/**
     * Run the message queue in this thread. Be sure to call
     * {@link #quit()} to end the loop.
     */
    public static void loop() {
        final Looper me = myLooper();
        if (me == null) {
            throw new RuntimeException("No Looper; Looper.prepare() wasn't called on this thread.");
        }
        final MessageQueue queue = me.mQueue;

        // Make sure the identity of this thread is that of the local process,
        // and keep track of what that identity token actually is.
        Binder.clearCallingIdentity();
        final long ident = Binder.clearCallingIdentity();

        for (;;) {
            Message msg = queue.next(); // might block
            if (msg == null) {
                // No message indicates that the message queue is quitting.
                return;
            }

            // This must be in a local variable, in case a UI event sets the logger
            final Printer logging = me.mLogging;
            if (logging != null) {
                logging.println(">>>>> Dispatching to " + msg.target + " " +
                        msg.callback + ": " + msg.what);
            }

            final long slowDispatchThresholdMs = me.mSlowDispatchThresholdMs;

            final long traceTag = me.mTraceTag;
            if (traceTag != 0 && Trace.isTagEnabled(traceTag)) {
                Trace.traceBegin(traceTag, msg.target.getTraceName(msg));
            }
            final long start = (slowDispatchThresholdMs == 0) ? 0 : SystemClock.uptimeMillis();
            final long end;
            try {
                msg.target.dispatchMessage(msg);
                end = (slowDispatchThresholdMs == 0) ? 0 : SystemClock.uptimeMillis();
            } finally {
                if (traceTag != 0) {
                    Trace.traceEnd(traceTag);
                }
            }
            if (slowDispatchThresholdMs > 0) {
                final long time = end - start;
                if (time > slowDispatchThresholdMs) {
                    Slog.w(TAG, "Dispatch took " + time + "ms on "
                            + Thread.currentThread().getName() + ", h=" +
                            msg.target + " cb=" + msg.callback + " msg=" + msg.what);
                }
            }

            if (logging != null) {
                logging.println("<<<<< Finished to " + msg.target + " " + msg.callback);
            }

            // Make sure that during the course of dispatching the
            // identity of the thread wasn't corrupted.
            final long newIdent = Binder.clearCallingIdentity();
            if (ident != newIdent) {
                Log.wtf(TAG, "Thread identity changed from 0x"
                        + Long.toHexString(ident) + " to 0x"
                        + Long.toHexString(newIdent) + " while dispatching to "
                        + msg.target.getClass().getName() + " "
                        + msg.callback + " what=" + msg.what);
            }

            msg.recycleUnchecked();
        }
    }

MessageQueue

消息队列在Android中指的是MessageQueue，它主要包括两个操作：插入和读取。读取操作本身会伴随着删除操作。插入对应的是enqueueMessage，读取对应的是next。MessageQueue是通过一个单链表的数据结构来维护消息队列。