diff --git a/src/XMonad/DBus.hs b/src/XMonad/DBus.hs
--- a/src/XMonad/DBus.hs
+++ b/src/XMonad/DBus.hs
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 import Data.Maybe (mapMaybe)
 import qualified DBus as D
 import qualified DBus.Client as DC
-import qualified Codec.Binary.UTF8.String as UTF8
 
 busName = "org.XMonad.DBus"
 interface = "org.XMonad.DBus"
@@ -41,10 +40,10 @@
 
 send :: DC.Client -> String -> IO ()
 send c s = DC.emit c $ (D.signal pathPrefixObjectPath interface member) {
-    D.signalBody = [D.toVariant $ UTF8.decodeString s]
+    D.signalBody = [D.toVariant s]
     }
 
 sendToPath :: DC.Client -> String -> String -> IO ()
 sendToPath c p s = DC.emit c $ (D.signal (D.objectPath_ $ pathPrefix++"/"++p) interface member) {
-    D.signalBody = [D.toVariant $ UTF8.decodeString s]
+    D.signalBody = [D.toVariant s]
     }
diff --git a/xmonad-dbus.cabal b/xmonad-dbus.cabal
--- a/xmonad-dbus.cabal
+++ b/xmonad-dbus.cabal
@@ -4,10 +4,10 @@
 --
 -- see: https://github.com/sol/hpack
 --
--- hash: 0d057425d35362bdaa148e7ccfd6f96c239dcc5fadb0d03b6cbfb7b36d434e15
+-- hash: e09852654ab4face57c2b914858976e2a3f163d7aafec5df933a60de1b8baa90
 
 name:           xmonad-dbus
-version:        0.1.0.0
+version:        0.1.0.1
 description:    Please see the README on Github at <https://github.com/githubuser/xmonad-dbus#readme>
 homepage:       https://github.com/troydm/xmonad-dbus#readme
 bug-reports:    https://github.com/troydm/xmonad-dbus/issues
@@ -34,7 +34,6 @@
   build-depends:
       base >=4.7 && <5
     , dbus >=0.10
-    , utf8-string >=1.0
   default-language: Haskell2010
 
 executable xmonad-dbus
@@ -47,7 +46,6 @@
   build-depends:
       base >=4.7 && <5
     , dbus >=0.10
-    , utf8-string >=1.0
     , xmonad-dbus
   default-language: Haskell2010
 
@@ -62,6 +60,5 @@
   build-depends:
       base >=4.7 && <5
     , dbus >=0.10
-    , utf8-string >=1.0
     , xmonad-dbus
   default-language: Haskell2010