Updating GUI: Runnables vs Messages

Question

To update the GUI from other threads, there are basically two main approaches:

1. Use java.lang.Runnable with any of these methods:

   Activity.r         
   
   
           

Answer 1

Handler interface provides much more functionality than runOnUiThread(), according to docs:

There are two main uses for a Handler:
(1) to schedule messages and runnables to be executed as some point in the future
(2) to enqueue an action to be performed on a different thread than your own.

runOnUiThread does only a subset of (2). ie "enqueue an action to be performed on UI thread"

So IMO unless you need those extra features runOnUiThread is sufficient and preferred way.