diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 5960738e..ab79b87e 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -56,12 +56,12 @@ android {
     buildTypes {
         debug {
             minifyEnabled true
-            useProguard true
             signingConfig signingConfigs.debug
         }
-        release { //keep on 'release' for faster builds, set to 'all' when testing to make sure proguard is not deleting important stuff
+        // keep minifyEnabled false above for faster builds; set to 'true'
+        // when testing to make sure ProGuard/R8 is not deleting important stuff
+        release {
             minifyEnabled true
-            useProguard true
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/gradle.properties b/gradle.properties
index 5465fec0..c87083bf 100644
--- a/gradle.properties
+++ b/gradle.properties
@@ -1,2 +1,11 @@
 android.enableJetifier=true
-android.useAndroidX=true
\ No newline at end of file
+android.useAndroidX=true
+###
+# This 'android.enableR8' property only matters when the current
+# build variant has 'minifyEnabled true'.
+#
+# Set this to false to use ProGuard.
+# Set this to true to use R8.
+#
+# Default: true
+android.enableR8=false