Foreground Service rather than the ViewModel. Here’s why:

1. Lifecycle Considerations: A ViewModel is tied to the lifecycle of a UI component (Activity/Fragment). If your UI is destroyed (e.g., user navigates away, system kills the app), the ViewModel might also be cleared. The service, however, runs independently in the background.

2. Service Responsibility: Since you need to manage playback, pausing, and stopping while showing notifications, it makes sense to control the Recorder directly in the Foreground Service. The service should be responsible for keeping the recording process alive and updating the notification accordingly.

3. Communication:

The ViewModel can observe and send commands to the Service using MutableLiveData, StateFlow, or BroadcastReceiver.

The Service should expose control functions (start, pause, stop) and notify the UI about state changes via LiveData, Flow, or a BoundService