When people categorize a support or tank as a flex tank or flex support.
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I think the meaning is more about the importance of the tanks or support with flex tank being more about damage than protection (For example Roadhog & Zarya) and flex support being more about utility than healing (for example Zenyatta & Lucio)
So can Off Support and Off tank be used interchangeably?
This also depends on the definition of off tank and main tank witch I’ve seen varies greatly from person to person.
Hmmm… If you ask me I would usually say no as every hero contribute different and unique abilities but technically switching between them will be much less problematic than switching a non flex to a flex 
I would say, never switch a main with a flex but do switch a flex with a flex, a flex for a main or a main for a main. Terrible split in my opinion but that just the meaning behind it I guess
To me, it meant you could swap to whatever role the team currently needed.
What it became is to begrudgingly play tank every single match.
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The word is being used moreso as “flexible”
It just means you can pick them with and against a lot of characters and compositions and still do well
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The flex term pretty much means two different things here.
A flex tank just means a player who is able to flex onto multiple tank heroes
A flex support is a support player who is not the primary shotcaller, filling in for whatever support hero needs to be played alongside the main support player (who are often on Lucio or Mercy). These people often play more mechanically demanding heroes (Moira aside) who are able to output large amounts of offensive damage/assists.
How is Lucio a main support? I thought main support meant the main healer.
Lucio is a main healer, but I use his speed boost to get the best value out of him. If I want a healer that does more healing, I normally pick Baptiste.
Main support & Main healer are two very different things.
Main healer is a pretty straightforward term, just means the heroes with the better HPS.
Main support is a much more complicated term, but it’s usually looked at as the role where the player needs to be the primary shotcaller, amongst other things. The less mechanically demanding heroes are usually picked here so that players are more capable of leading their team. Mercy & Lucio have pretty much always been main supports, sometimes Brig. Zen & Baptiste have occasionally filled in here depending on team comps.
Kinda confused but ok.
Basically I’d put it as the ability of using several tanks/supports and adapt to the situation. For example many Rein players can’t go Winston when it suits better.
It can be either flexing inside the main/off role or swap between them.
Main/off tank although many people think of as “having a shield or not” is more about the ability to generate space (like Wrecking Ball can do without having a team shield), while off tanks go more to the peeling side (like Zarya and D.Va) or being a beefy dps (like Hog and Zarya).
The support/healer part that got you confused goes about definition. Support and healing isn’t necessarily the same thing. Although heal is a support, supporting doesn’t mean healing (speed boost, armor, damage boost… Hence why in the past Symmetra with her old ult was categorized as support).
When it comes to main/off healer, as Sickone said it’s just raw healing power. When it comes to main support it comes to more ability to enable the team, like a Lúcio in Rein/Zarya would be the main support over a Baptiste, Moira, maybe even Ana, since, although he Baptiste can heal more, Lúcio’s speed boost is what makes the plays happen.
Robbie, it means that the hero being called “flex” can adjust to a lot of situations and comps. That or it just means the player can pick a variety of heroes from the role.
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The biggest hallmark of being the main support is that you are also the team’s shotcaller. That’s why Mercy is a main support, not because she primarily heals, but because she is the one with the best overall view of the battlefield.
In the highest levels of play, it is the main support who decides when and where you engage and determines when you will pull out of a futile fight or press the advantage in one you are winning.
Flexes muscles.
This. This is what “flex” means.
Jack of all trades master of none
Flex support is the person that plays Ana/Zen/Moira and sometimes Bap/Brig. Contrast this with the main support, which, back in the day, was 100% Lucio all the time.
Flex tank = offtank player
No
“OFf” as a prefix has come to be a casual moniker to describe something that a hero provides to a comp, for example zen is an “off” healer, because he does less healing than most supports. The partner to this is “main”
“Flex” on the other hand, is a competitive moniker to describe an indivudal players hero pool. A flex support is a player (or hero in this players hero pool) that fall within a specific grouping. The actual definition of the grouping is hard to justify, but essentially is formed of any support that isnt lucio, but especially zenyatta, ana and moira.
The history of where the term flex support comes from is that back in the day, lucio was the only support that ever needed to be played 100% of the time in the pro scene, for this reasaon, teams would have a lucio specialist player, and then a second player, the flex support (to their main support) who would play either mercy or zenyatta (and later ana).
However, over time, many different hero combinations have come and gone, and it has been necessary for main support players such as for exmaple funnyastro, aspen, fdgod, etc to add heros such as baptiste, briggite, ana and mercy to their pool. Essentially the set of main support HEROES is the set of all supports (and sombra funnily) that doesnt include zenyatta. The set of Flex support heroes is the set of all supports minus lucio.
So for example, jjonak is a very famous flex support, his speciality is in zen, ana and moira, however he will have a lot of scrim time even on heroes like brig and mercy, but certainly not lucio. On the other hand, funnyastro is a professional main support player, his specialty is lucio brig baptiste and mercy, but he will also be able to play moira and ana to a top500 level too, just wouldnt be asked by his team to play zenyatta.
For the average plat player in ranked , “flex support” isnt a term to describe a comp, or a hero, its a term to describe a player and their hero pool /role in an organised team.
Boy if you calling me Robbie one more time I’m gonna spoon out your kneecaps and hide them under my bed do you get me?
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Flex supports debuff the enemy team, flex tanks play whatever tank that the main tank isn’t playing.