Collecting Flows Safely — keep upstream work tied to the UI lifecycle

collectAsState() keeps collecting whenever the composable is in composition, including while the app is backgrounded — that wastes CPU and battery. collectAsStateWithLifecycle() ties collection to a Lifecycle.State (default STARTED) so backgrounding pauses upstream work. For chatty flows, pair the consumer with .conflate() and .distinctUntilChanged() so Compose only sees meaningful changes. Skydoves hot take #4: a Flow<T> parameter on a composable is unstable and blocks skipping for the whole composable — collect at the caller and pass the resolved value.

When to use this skill