Pros and cons of captive runtime?

Report · Sep 25, 2012

Hi, I've been assuming that captive runtime is a good thing - but I've had a suspicious amount of feedback from users who cannot get the apps to work in this state. Is there any reason why that would be? Apparently, the old 2.2 operating system dismisses these APKs as "invalid".

But by the same token, I also get 1-star protests from users who resent having to install Adobe AIR! Not sure what to do for the best...

Report · Sep 25, 2012

AIR 3.4 ought to work on Android 2.2, but are you sure the devices you've tried that on are ArmV7? If they are ArmV6 it won't work with either captive or non-captive.

Really it's as simple as:

Captive runtime is a larger file, but at least you can be sure that an AIR update won't break your app, and if the version of AIR you need is not in the app store for that device, it will still work. I have AIR 3.4 based apps in the Kindle Fire store, and you can't get AIR 3.4 through that store.

Non-captive runtime would give a smaller file, but there's a chance the user won't be able to get the shared runtime that you need them to.

Report · Sep 25, 2012

The frustrating thing is that I have no personal experience of any such problems. Just some shrill 1-star reviews from users who claim the app does not work since I switched to captive runtime. And of course there's no right of reply when people use a review to ask for support.