diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index fda2c1ac..0becc422 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ tokio = { version = "1.0", features = ["fs", "sync", "time"] }
 tokio-util = { version = "0.7.1", features = ["io"] }
 tracing = { version = "0.1.21", default-features = false, features = ["log", "std"] }
 tower-service = "0.3"
-tokio-tungstenite = { version = "0.21", optional = true }
+tokio-tungstenite = { version = "0.26.1", optional = true }
 percent-encoding = "2.1"
 pin-project = "1.0"
 tokio-rustls = { version = "0.26", default-features = false, features = ["logging", "tls12", "ring"], optional = true }
diff --git a/src/filters/ws.rs b/src/filters/ws.rs
index 9ca374fb..0e6498de 100644
--- a/src/filters/ws.rs
+++ b/src/filters/ws.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 //! Websockets Filters
 
-use std::borrow::Cow;
 use std::fmt;
 use std::future::Future;
 use std::pin::Pin;
@@ -14,6 +13,7 @@ use futures_util::{future, ready, FutureExt, Sink, Stream, TryFutureExt};
 use headers::{Connection, HeaderMapExt, SecWebsocketAccept, SecWebsocketKey, Upgrade};
 use hyper::upgrade::OnUpgrade;
 use tokio_tungstenite::{
+    tungstenite::Bytes, tungstenite::Utf8Bytes,
     tungstenite::protocol::{self, WebSocketConfig},
     WebSocketStream,
 };
@@ -284,23 +284,23 @@ pub struct Message {
 
 impl Message {
     /// Construct a new Text `Message`.
-    pub fn text<S: Into<String>>(s: S) -> Message {
+    pub fn text<B: Into<Utf8Bytes>>(bytes: B) -> Message {
         Message {
-            inner: protocol::Message::text(s),
+            inner: protocol::Message::text(bytes.into()),
         }
     }
 
     /// Construct a new Binary `Message`.
-    pub fn binary<V: Into<Vec<u8>>>(v: V) -> Message {
+    pub fn binary<B: Into<Bytes>>(bytes: B) -> Message {
         Message {
-            inner: protocol::Message::binary(v),
+            inner: protocol::Message::binary(bytes),
         }
     }
 
     /// Construct a new Ping `Message`.
-    pub fn ping<V: Into<Vec<u8>>>(v: V) -> Message {
+    pub fn ping<B: Into<Bytes>>(bytes: B) -> Message {
         Message {
-            inner: protocol::Message::Ping(v.into()),
+            inner: protocol::Message::Ping(bytes.into()),
         }
     }
 
@@ -309,9 +309,9 @@ impl Message {
     /// Note that one rarely needs to manually construct a Pong message because the underlying tungstenite socket
     /// automatically responds to the Ping messages it receives. Manual construction might still be useful in some cases
     /// like in tests or to send unidirectional heartbeats.
-    pub fn pong<V: Into<Vec<u8>>>(v: V) -> Message {
+    pub fn pong<B: Into<Bytes>>(bytes: B) -> Message {
         Message {
-            inner: protocol::Message::Pong(v.into()),
+            inner: protocol::Message::Pong(bytes.into()),
         }
     }
 
@@ -323,7 +323,7 @@ impl Message {
     }
 
     /// Construct a Close `Message` with a code and reason.
-    pub fn close_with(code: impl Into<u16>, reason: impl Into<Cow<'static, str>>) -> Message {
+    pub fn close_with(code: impl Into<u16>, reason: impl Into<Utf8Bytes>) -> Message {
         Message {
             inner: protocol::Message::Close(Some(protocol::frame::CloseFrame {
                 code: protocol::frame::coding::CloseCode::from(code.into()),
@@ -387,7 +387,7 @@ impl Message {
     }
 
     /// Destructure this message into binary data.
-    pub fn into_bytes(self) -> Vec<u8> {
+    pub fn into_bytes(self) -> Bytes {
         self.inner.into_data()
     }
 }
@@ -398,7 +398,7 @@ impl fmt::Debug for Message {
     }
 }
 
-impl From<Message> for Vec<u8> {
+impl From<Message> for Bytes {
     fn from(m: Message) -> Self {
         m.into_bytes()
     }
diff --git a/src/test.rs b/src/test.rs
index 947c0902..ed30b632 100644
--- a/src/test.rs
+++ b/src/test.rs
@@ -572,7 +572,7 @@ impl WsBuilder {
 impl WsClient {
     /// Send a "text" websocket message to the server.
     pub async fn send_text(&mut self, text: impl Into<String>) {
-        self.send(crate::ws::Message::text(text)).await;
+        self.send(crate::ws::Message::text(text.into())).await;
     }
 
     /// Send a websocket message to the server.