If it's from a background thread, one possibility is to use an unbounded for loop. For example, suppose the AsyncTask currently does:
private class MyTask extends AsyncTask<T1, Void, T3>
{
protected T3 doInBackground(T1... value)
{
return longThing(value);
}
protected void onPostExecute(T3 result)
{
updateUI(result);
}
}
then rewrite it as something like:
private class MyTask extends AsyncTask<T1, T3, T3>
{
protected T3 doInBackground(T1... value)
{
for (;;)
{
T3 result = longThing(value);
publishProgress(result);
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
return null;
}
protected void onProgressUpdate(T3... progress)
{
updateUI(progress[0]);
}
}
Of course, you should have a check to break the loop (for example when the Activity is paused or destroyed).
Another option is to create a Handler instance and call postDelayed() repeatedly.