I am a newbie in Ionic. I just made a simple app in Ionic that ran well on browser. So, I converted it into an .apk file using Android studios that generated an android-release-unsigned.apk file. I transfered it to my device and on trying to install it I encountered that it was not being installed. I am not able to figure out the cause. Need some assistance.
You can follow the steps which are mentioned in the official doc below.
But for me, it didn't work.So I just manually did that as shown below.
ionic cordova run android --device
Plugged device to the PC using USB
Copy the android-debug.apk file to the device (apk path:.. \platforms\android\build\outputs\apk)
After that, You have to enable below setting on your Android device
settings --> general tab --> security --> unknown sources (enabled this)
android-debug.apk from the location which you have copied.Then your app will be installed on your device.That is it.You can use your app on real device now.The most probable reason I can think of is that your application is not signed. As Sampath mentioned try to build a debug version and not release version of your application and then install it on your device. You can can use 'ionic run android' and copy/paste manually the output android-debug.apk file to your device.
In the config.xml, in the 2nd line, there is a tag called widget. You have to give a unique id for that. If there is another ionic app installed with same widget id, your device will not allow you to install another app with the same id.