Now, as we are in an Ionic project folder, we can run Ionic project-specific CLI commands. Any platform can be added to the project to build the specific app:

$ ionic platform add android

We will add an Android platform as it will work on all machines, such as Windows, Linux, or Mac. Ionic will download Android-specific default resources such as icons and splash screens, and also add some important plugins by default. A customized keyboard plugin is bundled with the Ionic app.

$ ionic serve

This will open the Ionic app in your default browser.

The latest Chrome version provides a way to emulate various mobile device screen sizes. Open Developer Tools (F12), select Console from the top-right corner, and select Emulation. You can alternatively select the mobile icon from the top-left corner of the window. Please see the following screenshot:

$ ionic run android

This will fire up the emulator if there is no connected device, then start the build process. It will generate the .apk file and then deploy it to the emulator or the connected device that is available.

This would be a Eureka moment, seeing your first actual app on the device and playing with it. In the next section we discuss some of the common issues you may have faced during the process and provide solutions for them.