How to set delay in android?

You can use CountDownTimer which is much more efficient than any other solution posted. You can also produce regular notifications on intervals along the way using its onTick(long) method

Have a look at this example showing a 30seconds countdown

   new CountDownTimer(30000, 1000) {
         public void onFinish() {
             // When timer is finished 
             // Execute your code here
     }

     public void onTick(long millisUntilFinished) {
              // millisUntilFinished    The amount of time until finished.
     }
   }.start();

If you use delay frequently in your app, use this utility class

import android.os.Handler;


public class Utils {

    // Delay mechanism

    public interface DelayCallback{
        void afterDelay();
    }

    public static void delay(int secs, final DelayCallback delayCallback){
        Handler handler = new Handler();
        handler.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                delayCallback.afterDelay();
            }
        }, secs * 1000); // afterDelay will be executed after (secs*1000) milliseconds.
    }
}

Usage:

// Call this method directly from java file

int secs = 2; // Delay in seconds

Utils.delay(secs, new Utils.DelayCallback() {
    @Override
    public void afterDelay() {
        // Do something after delay

    }
});

Try this code:

import android.os.Handler;
...
final Handler handler = new Handler();
handler.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        // Do something after 5s = 5000ms
        buttons[inew][jnew].setBackgroundColor(Color.BLACK);
    }
}, 5000);