asStateFlow vs simple type cast documentation

[ggajews]

Hi guys.
Kotlin guide recommends using asStateFlow to return read only StateFlow

private val _counter = MutableStateFlow(0) // private mutable state flow
val counter = _counter.asStateFlow() // publicly exposed as read-only state flow

Android guide is using simple type cast though:

// Backing property to avoid state updates from other classes
private val _uiState = MutableStateFlow(LatestNewsUiState.Success(emptyList()))
// The UI collects from this StateFlow to get its state updates
val uiState: StateFlow<LatestNewsUiState> = _uiState

I cannot find a good answer in the documentation what are the differences between these two approaches? What is added value for using the asStateFlow() ?

[fvasco]

In your example uiState is MutableStateFlow, instead a counter !is MutableStateFlow
See also #1973

[ggajews]

ok so it's "safer" to use asStateFlow(), I'll create an issue in Android repo to align the sample