diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e5d2da8846..22962ff584 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -15,6 +15,9 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - **Breaking**: Removed `DefaultContentTopic` as developers must choose a content topic for their app;
   recommendations for content topic can be found at https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/23/.
 
+### Fixed
+- `WakuMessage.payloadAsUtf8` returning garbage on utf-8 non-ascii characters.
+
 ## [0.9.0] - 2021-07-26
 
 ### Changed
diff --git a/src/lib/waku_message/index.browser.spec.ts b/src/lib/waku_message/index.browser.spec.ts
index 0b8bf5c540..5cc9bd4f40 100644
--- a/src/lib/waku_message/index.browser.spec.ts
+++ b/src/lib/waku_message/index.browser.spec.ts
@@ -119,4 +119,16 @@ describe('Waku Message: Browser & Node', function () {
       )
     );
   });
+
+  it('Waku message round trip utf-8 including emojis', async function () {
+    const messageText = '😁🤣🥧🤦👩‍🎓';
+    const wakuMessage = await WakuMessage.fromUtf8String(
+      messageText,
+      TestContentTopic
+    );
+
+    const decodedText = wakuMessage.payloadAsUtf8;
+
+    expect(decodedText).to.eq(messageText);
+  });
 });
diff --git a/src/lib/waku_message/index.ts b/src/lib/waku_message/index.ts
index 1f3289fcc9..57b3ec8f65 100644
--- a/src/lib/waku_message/index.ts
+++ b/src/lib/waku_message/index.ts
@@ -205,11 +205,7 @@ export class WakuMessage {
       return '';
     }
 
-    return Array.from(this.proto.payload)
-      .map((char) => {
-        return String.fromCharCode(char);
-      })
-      .join('');
+    return Buffer.from(this.proto.payload).toString('utf-8');
   }
 
   get payload(): Uint8Array | undefined {