The runtime supports installable applications on Windows, macOS, and mobile operating systems, including Android, iOS, and BlackBerry Tablet OS.

[8] AIR internally uses a shared codebase with the Flash Player rendering engine and ActionScript 3.0 as the primary programming language.

[15] According to Adobe, over 100,000 unique applications have been built on AIR, and over 1 billion installations of the same were logged from users across the world, as of May 2014.

Native extensions may be developed by anyone using publicly available tools;[35] some are distributed for free or even as open source, while others are sold commercially.

[38] In May 2014, Adobe claimed that over 100,000 unique applications were built on AIR, and over 1 billion installations of the same were logged from users across the world.

[41] In May 2017, Adobe stopped releasing AIR for Android, and the app was eventually removed from the Play Store in September 2018, but it can still be downloaded through their website.

[42] After Adobe's transition of AIR to Harman, they resumed support for Android and the latest version is only available there.

Multiple instances of the browser can be started within a single AIR application, but JavaScript content executes with some security limitations.

AIR does not provide direct access to native GUI elements such as navigation bars or controls.

[62][63] Adobe distributes three commercial software products for developing of AIR applications in ActionScript: Third-party development environments that target the AIR runtime are also available, including: Adobe Flash Builder is the premium tool for Flex application development, since it includes an integrated drag-and-drop user interface builder, not found in competing tools like FlashDevelop.

According to Adobe, this restriction is designed to prevent malicious remote content from attacking a user's system.

[citation needed] Dreamweaver CS4/CS3 requires an additional extension to compile AIR applications,[67] as does Flash CS3 in the form of an update.