This app requires a webview to work

Ionic Framework
1

Hey! Hello everyoe!
I have been using Angular for over 6 years. Now, I’m learning IONIC.
I was running a IONIC-Angular 18 app on my android device, and everything was working correctly.
Then, I updated to angular 19, and it stop working.

This app requires a webview to work.

The first thing that I noticed was that the folder WWW didnt have the index.html. It was inside a subfolder called BROWSER.

I change the capacitor config, to the folder WWW/BROWSER. However, when I upload the code to android, I get this error: this app requires a webview to work.

I couldnt fix it using ChatGPT. Can someone guide me to find the solution?
Thank you guys!

Commands used:

ng build
npx cap sync
ionic capacitor run android

Angular: 19.0.4
… animations, common, compiler, compiler-cli, core, forms
… language-service, platform-browser, platform-browser-dynamic
… router

Package Version

@angular-devkit/architect 0.1900.5
@angular-devkit/build-angular 19.0.5
@angular-devkit/core 19.0.5 (cli-only)
@angular-devkit/schematics 19.0.5
@angular/cli 19.0.5
@schematics/angular 19.0.5
rxjs 7.8.1
typescript 5.6.3
zone.js 0.15.0

“@angular/animations”: “^19.0.4”,
“@angular/common”: “^19.0.4”,
“@angular/compiler”: “^19.0.4”,
“@angular/core”: “^19.0.4”,
“@angular/forms”: “^19.0.4”,
“@angular/platform-browser”: “^19.0.4”,
“@angular/platform-browser-dynamic”: “^19.0.4”,
“@angular/router”: “^19.0.4”,
“@capacitor/android”: “^6.2.0”,
“@capacitor/app”: “6.0.2”,
“@capacitor/cli”: “^6.2.0”,
“@capacitor/core”: “^6.2.0”,
“@capacitor/haptics”: “6.0.2”,
“@capacitor/ios”: “^6.2.0”,
“@capacitor/keyboard”: “6.0.3”,
“@capacitor/status-bar”: “6.0.2”,
“@capacitor/toast”: “^6.0.3”,
“@ionic/angular”: “^8.4.1”,
“bootstrap”: “^5.3.3”,
“capacitor-tts”: “^0.0.2”,
“howler”: “^2.2.4”,
“ionicons”: “^7.2.1”,
“rxjs”: “~7.8.0”,
“swiper”: “^8.4.7”,
“tslib”: “^2.3.0”,
“zone.js”: “~0.15.0”

2

That message appears when the device doesn’t have a WebView installed or have it disabled in apps.

3

Hey, Thank you for very much your answer. I have checked the device, and it has WebView installed. I also tried running the app in my Android emulator, where it had been working, and it says the same: it requires WebView.
Do I have any other points to check to determine what is happening?
I also created a project from scratch using Ionic-Angular 19, and it has the same issue.

4

I got the same exact issue…

5

Ionic apps still use angular 18, so you updated to 19 yourself, right?
can you provide a sample app?

6

Hey, how are you?

I noticed that Ionic Angular 19 is not working. What I found is that when the www folder is created, it has a different architecture:

WWW

  • prerendered-routes.json
  • Browser Folder: (Assets, Audio, Icons, etc).

The problem is that Capacitor doesn’t work with this structure. I tried updating the Capacitor config, and it works, but then the mobile phone or the emulator gives us an error: “WebView is required.” However, the app, using the www structure created by Angular 18, works.

const config: CapacitorConfig = {
appId: ‘com.example.app’,
appName: ‘IonicAngularTest’,
webDir: ‘www/browser’
};

Does anyone know how I can avoid the new www folder structure in Angular 19?
Thank you guys!