diff --git a/lib_ass/build.gradle.kts b/lib_ass/build.gradle.kts
index 6a8bb94..6b01c88 100644
--- a/lib_ass/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/lib_ass/build.gradle.kts
@@ -35,6 +35,12 @@ android {
             }
         }
         release {
+            externalNativeBuild {
+                cmake {
+                    // AGP defaults to RelWithDebInfo for release variants
+                    arguments += listOf("-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release")
+                }
+            }
             isMinifyEnabled = false
             proguardFiles(
                 getDefaultProguardFile("proguard-android-optimize.txt"),
diff --git a/lib_ass/src/main/cpp/libass-cmake b/lib_ass/src/main/cpp/libass-cmake
index 3394504..440dacd 160000
--- a/lib_ass/src/main/cpp/libass-cmake
+++ b/lib_ass/src/main/cpp/libass-cmake
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 339450435daa723995d80ccbf226ff115ec37a03
+Subproject commit 440dacd2fc3b653f00d71d130e250655260cb1b7
diff --git a/lib_ass_kt/build.gradle.kts b/lib_ass_kt/build.gradle.kts
index bbb834e..3bda173 100644
--- a/lib_ass_kt/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/lib_ass_kt/build.gradle.kts
@@ -35,6 +35,12 @@ android {
             }
         }
         release {
+            externalNativeBuild {
+                cmake {
+                    // AGP defaults to RelWithDebInfo for release variants
+                    arguments += listOf("-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release")
+                }
+            }
             isMinifyEnabled = false
             proguardFiles(
                 getDefaultProguardFile("proguard-android-optimize.txt"),