diff --git a/native/android/build.gradle b/native/android/build.gradle
--- a/native/android/build.gradle
+++ b/native/android/build.gradle
@@ -29,6 +29,20 @@
 
 allprojects {
     repositories {
+      exclusiveContent {
+        // We get React Native's Android binaries exclusively through npm,
+        // from a local Maven repo inside node_modules/react-native/.
+        // (The use of exclusiveContent prevents looking elsewhere like Maven
+        // Central and potentially getting a wrong version.)
+        filter {
+          includeGroup "com.facebook.react"
+        }
+        forRepository {
+          maven {
+            url "$rootDir/../node_modules/react-native/android"
+          }
+        }
+      }
         mavenLocal()
         maven {
             // All of React Native (JS, Obj-C sources, Android binaries) is installed from npm