Repeat a task with a time delay?

You should use Handler‘s postDelayed function for this purpose. It will run your code with specified delay on the main UI thread, so you will be able to update UI controls.

private int mInterval = 5000; // 5 seconds by default, can be changed later
private Handler mHandler;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle bundle) {

    // your code here

    mHandler = new Handler();
    startRepeatingTask();
}

@Override
public void onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy();
    stopRepeatingTask();
}

Runnable mStatusChecker = new Runnable() {
    @Override 
    public void run() {
          try {
               updateStatus(); //this function can change value of mInterval.
          } finally {
               // 100% guarantee that this always happens, even if
               // your update method throws an exception
               mHandler.postDelayed(mStatusChecker, mInterval);
          }
    }
};

void startRepeatingTask() {
    mStatusChecker.run(); 
}

void stopRepeatingTask() {
    mHandler.removeCallbacks(mStatusChecker);
}