diff --git a/ably/internal/ablyutil/msgpack.go b/ably/internal/ablyutil/msgpack.go
index 98dd66ce..b0ad4462 100644
--- a/ably/internal/ablyutil/msgpack.go
+++ b/ably/internal/ablyutil/msgpack.go
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ var handle codec.MsgpackHandle
 func init() {
 	handle.Raw = true
 	handle.WriteExt = true
-	handle.RawToString = true
 }
 
 // UnmarshalMsgpack decodes the MessagePack-encoded data and stores the result in the
diff --git a/ably/internal/ablyutil/msgpack_test.go b/ably/internal/ablyutil/msgpack_test.go
index 59e98cef..3bec4e32 100644
--- a/ably/internal/ablyutil/msgpack_test.go
+++ b/ably/internal/ablyutil/msgpack_test.go
@@ -5,9 +5,25 @@ package ablyutil
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 	"testing"
 )
 
+func TestUnmarshallByte(t *testing.T) {
+	buf := []byte{
+		0xc4,     // bin8
+		2,        // len
+		'a', 'a', // bytes
+	}
+	var target interface{}
+
+	err := UnmarshalMsgpack(buf, &target)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.IsType(t, []byte{}, target,
+		"bin8 should be decoded as []byte, but instead we got %T", target)
+}
+
 func TestMsgpack(t *testing.T) {
 	type Object1 struct {
 		Key int64 `codec:"my_key"`