How to run a Runnable thread in Android at defined intervals?

The simple fix to your example is :

handler = new Handler();

final Runnable r = new Runnable() {
    public void run() {
        tv.append("Hello World");
        handler.postDelayed(this, 1000);
    }
};

handler.postDelayed(r, 1000);

Or we can use normal thread for example (with original Runner) :

Thread thread = new Thread() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        try {
            while(true) {
                sleep(1000);
                handler.post(this);
            }
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
};

thread.start();

You may consider your runnable object just as a command that can be sent to the message queue for execution, and handler as just a helper object used to send that command.

More details are here http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/Handler.html

Kotlin

private lateinit var runnable: Runnable
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    val handler = Handler()
    runnable = Runnable {
        // do your work
        handler.postDelayed(runnable, 2000)
    }
    handler.postDelayed(runnable, 2000)
}

Java

Runnable runnable;
Handler handler;

@Override
protected void onCreate(@Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    handler = new Handler();
    runnable = new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            // do your work
            handler.postDelayed(this, 1000);
        }
    };
    handler.postDelayed(runnable, 1000);
}

Kotlin with Coroutines

In Kotlin, using coroutines you can do the following:

CoroutineScope(Dispatchers.Main).launch { // Main, because UI is changed
    ticker(delayMillis = 1000, initialDelayMillis = 1000).consumeEach {
        tv.append("Hello World")
    }
}

Try it out here!

now in Kotlin you can run threads this way:

class SimpleRunnable: Runnable {
    public override fun run() {
        println("${Thread.currentThread()} has run.")
    }
}
fun main(args: Array<String>) {
    val thread = SimpleThread()
    thread.start() // Will output: Thread[Thread-0,5,main] has run.
    val runnable = SimpleRunnable()
    val thread1 = Thread(runnable)
    thread1.start() // Will output: Thread[Thread-1,5,main] has run
}