Building Ionic DevApp with Ionic

Ionic DevApp is a developer-productivity app designed to facilitate immediate testing on iOS and Android devices without the need for installing native SDKs or managing device profiles. Initially created to streamline in-house testing of complex native changes, DevApp uses Ionic and Ionic Pro services to enable rapid iteration and deployment on mobile platforms. The app features a simple, split-pane UI built with Ionic Angular, and utilizes Cordova plugins to support native features. DevApp's key functionality includes automatic detection of ionic serve instances on a network using Service Discovery, implemented via UDP Broadcast, which is reliable across platforms. This approach has been open-sourced in a Node library called Ionic Discover. Ionic Pro offers real-time updates and error tracking, allowing developers to address post-production bugs swiftly. By using DevApp internally, Ionic has identified improvements for both the app and its associated tooling, demonstrating a commitment to enhancing the developer experience through iterative testing and feedback.