diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b946400a..326dc2f4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ HEAD
 
 * Added comparisons (`>`, `>=`, `==`, `!=`, `<`, and `<=`) between `JsonVariant`s
 * Added string deduplication (issue #1303)
+* Set `ARDUINOJSON_DECODE_UNICODE` to `1` by default
 * Fixed `copyArray()` not working with `String`, `ElementProxy`, and `MemberProxy`
 * Fixed error `getOrAddElement is not a member of ElementProxy` (issue #1311)
 * Fixed excessive stack usage when compiled with `-Og` (issues #1210 and #1314)
diff --git a/src/ArduinoJson/Configuration.hpp b/src/ArduinoJson/Configuration.hpp
index 71358d92..acf6276b 100644
--- a/src/ArduinoJson/Configuration.hpp
+++ b/src/ArduinoJson/Configuration.hpp
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@
 
 // Convert unicode escape sequence (\u0123) to UTF-8
 #ifndef ARDUINOJSON_DECODE_UNICODE
-#define ARDUINOJSON_DECODE_UNICODE 0
+#define ARDUINOJSON_DECODE_UNICODE 1
 #endif
 
 // Ignore comments in input