A possible solution for this is that you most probably not bundling your application first, perform the following steps and then deploy your app-debug.apk to your device
$> cd myproject
$> react-native start >/dev/null2>&1&
$> curl "http://localhost:8081/index.android.bundle?platform=android"-o
>"android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.bundle"
(if the folder assets
does not exists create it)
Then run from project root
$>(cd android/&&./gradlew assembleDebug)
install the created apk to you device, from location: android/app/build/outputs/apk/app-debug.apk
let me know if that fixes your issue
EDIT:
You can simply put it to your package.json as a script to automate it, I believe it will be fixed in upcoming releases of react-native and will be executed prior assembling the final APK, hence this won't be needed (I hope as well)
put :
"scripts":{"build":"(cd android/ && ./gradlew assembleDebug)","start":"node node_modules/react-native/local-cli/cli.js start","bundle-android":"react-native bundle --platform android --dev false --entry-file index.android.js --bundle-output android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.bundle --sourcemap-output android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.map --assets-dest android/app/src/main/res/"},
or as mentioned the curl equivalent, but for most cases the above is more robust