diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/java/Config.kt b/buildSrc/src/main/java/Config.kt
index c07d60078..188f80e42 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/java/Config.kt
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/java/Config.kt
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@ object Config {
         // Note: release builds must have the `versionName` set. However, the gradle ecosystem makes this hard to
         // ergonomically validate (sometimes IDEs default to a release variant and mysteriously fail due to the
         // validation, sometimes devs just need a release build and specifying project properties is annoying in IDEs),
-        // so instead we'll allow the `versionName` to silently default to an empty string.
-        return if (project.hasProperty("versionName")) project.property("versionName") as String else ""
+        // so instead we'll allow the `versionName` to silently default to a blank string.
+        return if (project.hasProperty("versionName")) project.property("versionName") as String else " "
     }
 
     @JvmStatic