Speed `react-native run-android` up

android/app/build.gradle

@@ -37,6 +37,5 @@ android {
 dependencies {
     compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
 
-    debugCompile project(path: ':sdk', configuration: 'debug')
-    releaseCompile project(path: ':sdk', configuration: 'release')
+    implementation project(':sdk')
 }

android/build.gradle

@@ -4,9 +4,10 @@
 buildscript {
     repositories {
         jcenter()
+        maven { url 'https://maven.google.com' }
     }
     dependencies {
-        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.2.3'
+        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.+'
 
         // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
         // in the individual module build.gradle files.
@@ -27,7 +28,21 @@ allprojects {
 
 ext {
     compileSdkVersion = 23
-    buildToolsVersion = "23.0.1"
+    buildToolsVersion = "25.0.3"
     minSdkVersion    = 16
     targetSdkVersion = 22
 }
+
+// Force the version of the Android build tools we have chosen on all
+// subprojects. The forcing was introduced for react-native and the third-party
+// modules that we utilize such as react-native-background-timer.
+subprojects { subproject ->
+    afterEvaluate{
+        if (subproject.plugins.hasPlugin('android')
+                || subproject.plugins.hasPlugin('android-library')) {
+            android {
+                buildToolsVersion rootProject.ext.buildToolsVersion
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}

android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties

@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@ distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-2.14.1-all.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.0-all.zip