diff --git a/build-tools/xa-prep-tasks/Xamarin.Android.BuildTools.PrepTasks/GitBranch.cs b/build-tools/xa-prep-tasks/Xamarin.Android.BuildTools.PrepTasks/GitBranch.cs
index 74f96f475b7..73f386038df 100644
--- a/build-tools/xa-prep-tasks/Xamarin.Android.BuildTools.PrepTasks/GitBranch.cs
+++ b/build-tools/xa-prep-tasks/Xamarin.Android.BuildTools.PrepTasks/GitBranch.cs
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ namespace Xamarin.Android.BuildTools.PrepTasks
 	public sealed class GitBranch : Git
 	{
 		[Output]
-		public                  string      Branch              { get; set; }
+		public                  string      Branch              { get; set; } = string.Empty;
 
 		protected   override    bool        LogTaskMessages     {
 			get { return false; }
@@ -48,6 +48,12 @@ public override bool Execute ()
 				base.Execute ();
 			}
 
+			// Trim generated dependabot branch names that are too long to produce useful package names
+			var lastSlashIndex = Branch.LastIndexOf ('/');
+			if (Branch.StartsWith ("dependabot") && lastSlashIndex != -1 && Branch.Length > 60) {
+				Branch = Branch.Substring (lastSlashIndex + 1);
+			}
+
 			Log.LogMessage (MessageImportance.Low, $"  [Output] {nameof (Branch)}: {Branch}");
 
 			return !Log.HasLoggedErrors;
diff --git a/src/manifestmerger/build.gradle b/src/manifestmerger/build.gradle
index d0c426d2601..44d750fe175 100644
--- a/src/manifestmerger/build.gradle
+++ b/src/manifestmerger/build.gradle
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ repositories {
 
 dependencies {
     // https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.android.tools.build/manifest-merger
-    implementation 'com.android.tools.build:manifest-merger:31.7.3'
+    implementation 'com.android.tools.build:manifest-merger:31.8.0'
 }
 
 sourceSets {