For flows, we can collect for x seconds by doing

withTimeoutOrNull(time) {
  flow.collect { ... }
}

Is there a way to do this in the middle of the flow, such that the function still returns

Flow<T>

?

It seems like the documentation says as you have written: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/coroutines/flow.html#flow-cancellation-basics

I understand that part. I was wondering for cases where I want to return

Flow<T>

for other calls, as I won’t be collecting values yet

you can write simple extension:

fun <T> Flow<T>.withTimeout(timeMillis: Long): Flow<T> = flow {
    withTimeoutOrNull(timeMillis) {
        collect { 
            emit(it)
        }
    }
}

in this case you literally do this in the middle of the flow

cool! totally forgot that you can emit while collecting