This is my requirement. 
I have to refresh my screen after certain timeout (dynamic value) and have to pause and resume when the screen goes out of visibility and comes back.

Which would be the right component to go with ?
I tried to use Handler in ViewModel and sending the callbacks via LiveData, but don't know how to pause the timer here.

Okay, haven't explored Flow, will check on that. 
Ya Sure.

Yes one last one. 

I want to add a imageview in between of text, found that there is this SpannableString, I can use ImageSpan and set the image. But had less control in terms of setting width and height of the image and scalability. The option is there, but doesn't seem elegant, should I break the textview into 2 and add imageview in between or go with SpannableString

ViewModel:

public void fetchSentUsers() {
        setStateForEmptyDataAndNotify(StateData.LOADING);

        contactsRepo.getSentUsers(contactsRepo.getSentUsersPayload(MainActivity.getAppHelper().getAT()))
                .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
                .delay(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
                .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
                .subscribe(new SingleObserver<List<SentUsersApiModel>>() {
                    @Override
                    public void onSubscribe(@NonNull Disposable d) {
                        compositeDisposable.add(d);
                    }

...

Repo:

 public Single<List<SentUsersApiModel>> getSentUsers(JSONObject payload) {
        return getContactsApi().getSentUsers(getRequestBody(payload));
    }

if the repository calls subscribeOn() and observeOn(), it controls the choice of schedulers, but it still has a Single, Observable, etc. to return to the viewmodel
--> in that case the repo will need viewmodel reference as well.

public Single<List<SentUsersApiModel>> getSentUsers(JSONObject payload) {
        return getContactsApi()
          .getSentUsers(getRequestBody(payload))
          .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
          .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread());
    }