Building an Android app (Episode #3): with Ionic — testing on a device

Few things beat seeing your own app running on a tangible smartphone.

In the previous episode, we went through the steps of creating a new Ionic project and launching an Android version of it on an emulator.

With that test out of the way, you are literally one command (and a few settings) away from launching it on an Android device.

Follow on and see for yourself.

What we are using

• Mac OS X
• Android Studio
• Ionic
• A Samsung Galaxy S8+
  (and its USB-C cable)

>> Changing some settings on the phone

→ Connect the phone and the computer with a USB-C cable

→ If hidden, enable the Developer options menu:

On the About phone menu in Settings, go to Software information, find the Build number entry and tap on it 7 times. Then you’ll see a toast message that says “Developer mode has been turned on.”

→ Now go to Settings > Developer options > USB debugging and switch it on

Like so

>> Running a single command on Terminal

→ On Terminal, make sure you are in the right project directory

→ Type this:

ionic cordova run android 

Yay!

Ta-Da! For now, this is the same app as the one we saw from last episode’s emulator.

Exit to the home screen and you’ll see the default app icon, which is customizable via Ionic.

That’s it!

In the next episode, we will start adding pages to the app.

(This is a Build Builds tutorial)