Should I include LifecycleOwner in ViewModel?

Question

LifecycleOwner is currently needed in order for me to create an observer.

I have code which creates an Observer in the ViewModel so I attach the LifecycleOwner when

Answer 1

No. If you wish to observe changes of some LiveData inside your ViewModel you can use observeForever() which doesn't require LifecycleOwner.

Remember to remove this observer on ViewModel's onCleared() event:

val observer = new Observer() {
  override public void onChanged(Integer integer) {
    //Do something with "integer"
  }
}

...

liveData.observeForever(observer);

...

override fun onCleared() {
    liveData.removeObserver(observer) 
    super.onCleared()
}

Very good reference with examples of observe LiveData.