This gist explains how you can remove a particular transitive dependency from your project

Sample build.gradle

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

android {
    compileSdkVersion 23
    buildToolsVersion "23.0.2"

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "experiment.rx.directoryapi"
        minSdkVersion 11
        targetSdkVersion 23
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'),
                    'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }
}
//If i do this it works but in this way support-annotations get removes from the project completely and i don't want that, use app:dependencies to test this

configurations {
    //    all*.exclude group: 'com.android.support', module:'support-annotations'
}

// exclude `support-annotation` from all the dependencies that contain`support-v4` as transitive dependency.
//or
// exclude `support-annotation` only from my `support-v4` dependency and remove `support-v4` dependency from all other dependencies that have `support-v4` as transitive dependency.
dependencies {
    compile("com.android.support:support-v4:23.4.0") {
        exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-annotations'
    }
    compile("com.facebook.fresco:fresco:0.9.0") {
//No other library references imagepipeline-base so we can go ahead and exclude it once and these changes will be reflected in app:dependencies
        exclude group: 'com.facebook.fresco', module: 'imagepipeline-base'
        exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-v4'
    }
    compile('com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.4.0') {
        exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-v4'
    }
    compile('com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth:9.0.0') {
        exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-v4'
    }
    compile('com.google.android.gms:play-services-identity:9.0.0') {
        exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-v4'

    }
    compile('pub.devrel:easypermissions:0.1.5') {
        exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-v4'

    }

    compile('com.google.api-client:google-api-client-android:1+') {
        exclude group: 'org.apache.httpcomponents'
    }
    compile('com.google.apis:google-api-services-admin-directory:directory_v1-rev53-1+') {
        exclude group: 'org.apache.httpcomponents'
    }
}