This guide covers how to deploy Ionic apps to Android simulators and devices using Capacitor or Cordova.

To deploy and debug apps on an Android device, you must follow these environment setup steps.

Project Setup

Before apps can be deployed to Android simulators and devices, the native project must be configured.

• Generate the native project, if it does not already exist.

  For Capacitor, run the following:

 $ ionic capacitor add android

For Cordova, run the following:

 $ ionic cordova prepare android

• Set the Package ID.

  For Capacitor, open the capacitor.config.json file and modify the appId property.

  For Cordova, open the config.xml file and modify the id attribute of the root element, <widget>. See the Cordova documentation for more information.

Running with Capacitor

Capacitor uses Android Studio to build and run apps to simulators and devices.

• Develop the Ionic app and sync it to the native project.

  With each meaningful change, Ionic apps must be built into web assets before the change can appear on Android simulators and devices. The web assets then must be copied into the native project. Luckily, this process is made easy with a single Ionic CLI command.

 $ ionic capacitor copy android

• In Android Studio, click the Run button and then select the target simulator or device.

Running with Cordova

The Ionic CLI can build, copy, and deploy Ionic apps to Android simulators and devices with a single command. It can also spin up a development server, like the one used in ionic serve, to provide live-reload functionality.

Run the following to start a long-running CLI process that boots up a live-reload server:

$ ionic cordova run android -l