Difference between LiveData, StateFlow, SharedFlow, Flow.

 

LiveData

LiveData is an lifecycle aware obervable data holder ( means it knows the lifecycle of the activity or an fragment) use it when you play with UI elements(views).

StateFlow

StateFlow(hot stream) does similar things like LiveData but it is made using flow by kotlin guys and only difference compare to LiveData is its not lifecycle aware but this is also been solved using repeatOnLifecycle api’s, So whatever LiveData can do StateFlow can do much better with power of flow’s api.

LiveData.observe() automatically unregisters the consumer when the view goes to the STOPPED state, whereas collecting from a StateFlow or any other flow does not stop collecting automatically. To achieve the same behavior,you need to collect the flow from a Lifecycle.repeatOnLifecycle block.

SharedFlow

SharedFlow(hot stream) - name itself says it is shared, this flow can be shared by multiple consumers, I mean if multiple collect calls happening on the sharedflow there will be a single flow which will get shared across all the consumers unlike normal flow.

Flow

Flow (cold stream) - In general think of it like a stream of data flowing in a pipe with both ends having a producer and consumer running on a coroutine.