diff --git a/packages/react-native-aztec/android/build.gradle b/packages/react-native-aztec/android/build.gradle
index e98616cef2b334..41e40c63c9e152 100644
--- a/packages/react-native-aztec/android/build.gradle
+++ b/packages/react-native-aztec/android/build.gradle
@@ -161,14 +161,14 @@ def addDependenciesToPom(pom) {
         def dependenciesNode = asNode().getAt('dependencies')[0] ?: asNode().appendNode('dependencies')
 
         // Iterate over the implementation dependencies, adding a <dependency> node for each
-        configurations.implementation.allDependencies.findAll { it instanceof ExternalDependency }.each {
-            if (it.name != 'unspecified') {
-                def dependencyNode = dependenciesNode.appendNode('dependency')
-                dependencyNode.appendNode('groupId', it.group)
-                dependencyNode.appendNode('artifactId', it.name)
-                dependencyNode.appendNode('version', it.version)
-            }
-        }
+        configurations.implementation.allDependencies
+                .findAll { it instanceof ExternalDependency && it.name != 'unspecified' }
+                .each {
+                    def dependencyNode = dependenciesNode.appendNode('dependency')
+                    dependencyNode.appendNode('groupId', it.group)
+                    dependencyNode.appendNode('artifactId', it.name)
+                    dependencyNode.appendNode('version', it.version)
+                }
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/build.gradle b/packages/react-native-bridge/android/build.gradle
index bbbe66fc2f8e4f..8cfc502b6587e6 100644
--- a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/build.gradle
+++ b/packages/react-native-bridge/android/build.gradle
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 buildscript {
     ext {
-        willPublishReactNativeBridgeBinary = gradle.ext.willPublishReactNativeBridgeBinary
+        willPublishReactNativeBridgeBinary = properties["publishReactNativeBridgeVersion"]?.trim() as boolean
     }
     repositories {
         jcenter()
diff --git a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/hermes-debug/build.gradle b/packages/react-native-bridge/android/hermes-debug/build.gradle
deleted file mode 100644
index 9837644fdd88c1..00000000000000
--- a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/hermes-debug/build.gradle
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-configurations.maybeCreate("default")
-artifacts.add("default", file('../vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-debug.aar'))
diff --git a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/hermes-release/build.gradle b/packages/react-native-bridge/android/hermes-release/build.gradle
deleted file mode 100644
index c5c1c271d28309..00000000000000
--- a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/hermes-release/build.gradle
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-configurations.maybeCreate("default")
-artifacts.add("default", file('../vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-release.aar'))
diff --git a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/react-native-bridge/build.gradle b/packages/react-native-bridge/android/react-native-bridge/build.gradle
index f3a5c77e3461a9..2d7de665e67351 100644
--- a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/react-native-bridge/build.gradle
+++ b/packages/react-native-bridge/android/react-native-bridge/build.gradle
@@ -67,10 +67,9 @@ android {
 repositories {
     google()
     jcenter()
-    maven {
-        url  "https://dl.bintray.com/wordpress-mobile/maven"
-    }
+    maven { url  "https://dl.bintray.com/wordpress-mobile/maven" }
     maven { url "https://jitpack.io" }
+    maven { url "https://a8c-libs.s3.amazonaws.com/android" }
 }
 
 dependencies {
@@ -95,6 +94,7 @@ dependencies {
         implementation "com.github.wordpress-mobile:react-native-screens:${readHashedVersion('../../../react-native-editor/package.json', 'react-native-screens', 'dependencies')}"
         implementation "com.github.wordpress-mobile:react-native-safe-area-context:${readHashedVersion('../../../react-native-editor/package.json', 'react-native-safe-area-context', 'dependencies')}"
         implementation "com.github.wordpress-mobile:react-native-reanimated:${readHashedVersion('../../../react-native-editor/package.json', 'react-native-reanimated', 'dependencies')}"
+        runtimeOnly "org.wordpress-mobile:hermes-release-mirror:0.61.5"
    } else {
         api 'com.facebook.react:react-native:+'
         api project(':@wordpress_react-native-aztec')
@@ -108,8 +108,8 @@ dependencies {
         api project(':react-native-screens')
         api project(':react-native-safe-area-context')
         api project(':react-native-reanimated')
-        debugRuntimeOnly project(":hermes-debug")
-        releaseRuntimeOnly project(":hermes-release")
+        debugRuntimeOnly "org.wordpress-mobile:hermes-debug-mirror:0.61.5"
+        releaseRuntimeOnly "org.wordpress-mobile:hermes-release-mirror:0.61.5"
    }
 }
 
@@ -164,14 +164,21 @@ def addDependenciesToPom(pom) {
     pom.withXml {
         def dependenciesNode = asNode().getAt('dependencies')[0] ?: asNode().appendNode('dependencies')
 
-        // Iterate over the implementation dependencies, adding a <dependency> node for each
-        configurations.implementation.allDependencies.findAll { it instanceof ExternalDependency }.each {
-            if (it.name != 'unspecified') {
-                def dependencyNode = dependenciesNode.appendNode('dependency')
-                dependencyNode.appendNode('groupId', it.group)
-                dependencyNode.appendNode('artifactId', it.name)
-                dependencyNode.appendNode('version', it.version)
-            }
+        def addDependencies = { configuration, addExtraNode = {} ->
+            configuration.allDependencies
+                .findAll { it instanceof ExternalDependency && it.name != 'unspecified' }
+                .each {
+                    def dependencyNode = dependenciesNode.appendNode('dependency')
+                    dependencyNode.appendNode('groupId', it.group)
+                    dependencyNode.appendNode('artifactId', it.name)
+                    dependencyNode.appendNode('version', it.version)
+                    addExtraNode(dependencyNode)
+                }
+        }
+
+        addDependencies(configurations.implementation)
+        addDependencies(configurations.runtimeOnly) { dependencyNode ->
+            dependencyNode.appendNode('scope', 'runtime')
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/settings.gradle b/packages/react-native-bridge/android/settings.gradle
index a129a5be41dbde..cbabc35ea7026b 100644
--- a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/settings.gradle
+++ b/packages/react-native-bridge/android/settings.gradle
@@ -10,48 +10,28 @@ include ':react-native-bridge'
 include ':@wordpress_react-native-aztec'
 project(':@wordpress_react-native-aztec').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../react-native-aztec/android')
 
-def publishReactNativeBridgeVersion = properties["publishReactNativeBridgeVersion"]
-gradle.ext.willPublishReactNativeBridgeBinary = publishReactNativeBridgeVersion?.trim() as boolean
+assert file("../../../node_modules").exists() : "node_modules folder is missing. Please run `npm install` from the root Gutenberg project"
 
-// Only add these modules/projects if we are not building to publish a binary.
-// TODO: This is a very fragile check. Since the `settings.gradle` file is part of initialization,
-// it'll not work for even simple tasks such as `./gradlew clean` unless the
-// `publishReactNativeBridgeVersion` property is passed. It's a necessary check for the moment,
-// however by moving the Hermes binary to remote and maybe using dependency substitution for the
-// included projects, we can get rid of it.
-if (!gradle.ext.willPublishReactNativeBridgeBinary) {
-    /*
-    IMPORTANT: DO NOT add hermes modules if we are building a binary to publish.
-    If these modules are added, it'll cause the `com.facebook.hermes.BuildConfig` file to be
-    included in the binary which will then result in a duplicate class error.
-    This seems to happen even if these modules are not added as a dependency.
-    */
-    include ':hermes-debug'
-    include ':hermes-release'
-
-    assert file("../../../node_modules").exists() : "node_modules folder is missing. Please run `npm install` from the root Gutenberg project"
-
-    include ':react-native-linear-gradient'
-    project(':react-native-linear-gradient').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-linear-gradient/android')
-    include ':react-native-svg'
-    project(':react-native-svg').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-svg/android')
-    include ':react-native-aztec'
-    project(':react-native-aztec').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../packages/react-native-aztec/android')
-    include ':react-native-video'
-    project(':react-native-video').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-video/android-exoplayer')
-    include ':@react-native-community_slider'
-    project(':@react-native-community_slider').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/@react-native-community/slider/src/android')
-    include ':react-native-get-random-values'
-    project(':react-native-get-random-values').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-get-random-values/android')
-    include ':@react-native-community_masked-view'
-    project(':@react-native-community_masked-view').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/@react-native-community/masked-view/android')
-    include ':react-native-gesture-handler'
-    project(':react-native-gesture-handler').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-gesture-handler/android')
-    include ':react-native-screens'
-    project(':react-native-screens').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-screens/android')
-    include ':react-native-safe-area-context'
-    project(':react-native-safe-area-context').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-safe-area-context/android')
-    include ':react-native-reanimated'
-    project(':react-native-reanimated').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-reanimated/android')
-}
+include ':react-native-linear-gradient'
+project(':react-native-linear-gradient').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-linear-gradient/android')
+include ':react-native-svg'
+project(':react-native-svg').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-svg/android')
+include ':react-native-aztec'
+project(':react-native-aztec').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../packages/react-native-aztec/android')
+include ':react-native-video'
+project(':react-native-video').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-video/android-exoplayer')
+include ':@react-native-community_slider'
+project(':@react-native-community_slider').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/@react-native-community/slider/src/android')
+include ':react-native-get-random-values'
+project(':react-native-get-random-values').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-get-random-values/android')
+include ':@react-native-community_masked-view'
+project(':@react-native-community_masked-view').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/@react-native-community/masked-view/android')
+include ':react-native-gesture-handler'
+project(':react-native-gesture-handler').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-gesture-handler/android')
+include ':react-native-screens'
+project(':react-native-screens').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-screens/android')
+include ':react-native-safe-area-context'
+project(':react-native-safe-area-context').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-safe-area-context/android')
+include ':react-native-reanimated'
+project(':react-native-reanimated').projectDir = new File(rootProject.projectDir, '../../../node_modules/react-native-reanimated/android')
 
diff --git a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-cppruntime-debug.aar b/packages/react-native-bridge/android/vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-cppruntime-debug.aar
deleted file mode 100644
index 3a2ad8cf05a57c..00000000000000
Binary files a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-cppruntime-debug.aar and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-cppruntime-release.aar b/packages/react-native-bridge/android/vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-cppruntime-release.aar
deleted file mode 100644
index 5256ff80d55df3..00000000000000
Binary files a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-cppruntime-release.aar and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-debug.aar b/packages/react-native-bridge/android/vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-debug.aar
deleted file mode 100644
index 74bd4ae5cba723..00000000000000
Binary files a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-debug.aar and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-release.aar b/packages/react-native-bridge/android/vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-release.aar
deleted file mode 100644
index cc208310ea2d54..00000000000000
Binary files a/packages/react-native-bridge/android/vendor/hermes-engine/hermes-release.aar and /dev/null differ