title: How to use the latest gradle version in Android Studio
body: <p>I've just noticed Gradle has <a href="https://docs.gradle.org/current/release-notes">released version 2.12</a> and according to the release notes the scripts should compile up to 20% faster. I'd like to upgrade to that version in Android Studio.</p>
  
  <p>I'm using v1.5.1 and in the settings I've selected the "Use default gradle wrapper" option, which means that instead of using a local gradle install for every project, a specific gradle version will be used for each project. The version used is the one defined in the <code>build.gradle</code> file. Example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>buildscript {
      repositories {
          jcenter()
      }
      dependencies {
          classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:1.5.0'
  
          // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
          // in the individual module build.gradle files
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now if I change that to this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.12'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>then Android Studio can't find that version and throws an error. Apparently AS tries to find the binaries in a local cache first (Android Studio/gradle/m2repository) and then it tries to download it from bintray:</p>
  
  <pre><code>https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/android/tools/build/gradle/2.12/gradle-2.12.jar
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Browsing the <a href="https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/android/tools/build/gradle">published builds</a> it looks like the last version available here is v2.1.0-alpha1.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Why is v2.12 not in bintray yet? Is it not compatible with Android Studio?</li>
  <li>If it were compatible, is there a way to download it and use a local install in a per-project basis? (I don't want to break older projects already in version control)</li>
  </ul>