Hello, is `Channel` still preferred over `Flow` for use cases that involve multiple emitters/liste...

# coroutines

[Gin Wang]

Hello, is Channel still preferred over Flow for use cases that involve multiple emitters/listeners for a data stream? From what I've read online, Flow is meant to be a safer alternative to Channel, but seems best used for one to one communication?

[tseisel]

There are 2 kinds of `Flow`s: cold and hot.
Cold flows wait for a consumer to subscribe before emitting, and re-emit the same sequence to each subscriber independently of each other.
Hot flows could start emitting before having any subscriber, and may not send the same sequence to each subscriber. A good example is a flow backed by a callback (click event, etc).

[tseisel]

There is currently a way to broadcast events emitted by a flow to multiple listeners: the broadcastIn(CoroutineScope) operator.

[zak.taccardi]

channels and flows are not mutually exclusive

[zak.taccardi]

Channels are a synchronization primitive for communicating between coroutines, Flow<T> is for exposing an API for asynchronous emissions of T over time

[zak.taccardi]

ViewModel.kt

[Gin Wang]

Thanks Thibault and Zak! that's very helpful