diff --git a/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/android/app/build.gradle b/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/android/app/build.gradle
index 5a6bc9bafa9..c46fd943932 100644
--- a/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/android/app/build.gradle
+++ b/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/android/app/build.gradle
@@ -33,6 +33,13 @@ import com.android.build.OutputFile
  *   // bundleInPaidRelease: true,
  *   // bundleInBeta: true,
  *
+ *   // whether to disable dev mode in custom build variants (by default only disabled in release)
+ *   // for example: to disable dev mode in the staging build type (if configured)
+ *   devDisabledInStaging: true,
+ *   // The configuration property can be in the following formats
+ *   //         'devDisabledIn${productFlavor}${buildType}'
+ *   //         'devDisabledIn${buildType}'
+ *
  *   // the root of your project, i.e. where "package.json" lives
  *   root: "../../",
  *
diff --git a/react.gradle b/react.gradle
index 09c06ca7e54..16c58c2aca7 100644
--- a/react.gradle
+++ b/react.gradle
@@ -76,7 +76,8 @@ gradle.projectsEvaluated {
                 workingDir reactRoot
 
                 // Set up dev mode
-                def devEnabled = !targetName.toLowerCase().contains("release")
+                def devEnabled = !(config."devDisabledIn${targetName}"
+                    || targetName.toLowerCase().contains("release"))
                 if (Os.isFamily(Os.FAMILY_WINDOWS)) {
                     commandLine("cmd", "/c", *nodeExecutableAndArgs, "node_modules/react-native/local-cli/cli.js", "bundle", "--platform", "android", "--dev", "${devEnabled}",
                             "--reset-cache", "--entry-file", entryFile, "--bundle-output", jsBundleFile, "--assets-dest", resourcesDir, *extraPackagerArgs)