How to turn your web app into an installable Android app

Sign up with Google or an email and password. Every app you create is saved to your account, so you can come back later, change the name or colours and download a fresh project without starting over.

On the New app screen, drop in the address of your live site — for example https://yourapp.com. You can add a sentence describing what the app does; the more context you give, the better the suggestions. No source code and no rewrite is needed: the app you already have on the web is the app that gets packaged.

Code proposes everything a native project needs: the app name, the package ID (the unique identifier stores use, like com.yourcompany.app), a theme colour, a background colour and a short store description. Accept the defaults or edit any field, then save. A few things worth checking:

• The package ID can never be changed once the app is published — pick it carefully.
• The theme colour is what people see in the status bar and splash screen.
• Your site should work on a phone-sized screen; the app is your site, full screen.

Open the saved app and choose Android or iOS, then download the ZIP. Inside you get a ready-to-run Capacitor project: the configuration file, a package file, a setup script and a README with the exact commands for your platform.

You need Java 17 and Android Studio installed. Unzip the folder, run the included setup script, then open the project in Android Studio and build. The finished file appears as app-debug.apk and installs on any Android phone. For the Play Store you sign a release build in Android Studio instead — same project, one extra step.

The iOS download works the same way but produces an Xcode project and the archive commands that turn it into an .ipa. That one needs a Mac and an Apple developer account.

Because the app loads your live website, most changes need no new build at all — you ship your site, and people see it immediately. You only rebuild when the app name, icon, colours or package ID change.