diff --git a/bytestring/Cargo.toml b/bytestring/Cargo.toml
index 466f8030..92131e4a 100644
--- a/bytestring/Cargo.toml
+++ b/bytestring/Cargo.toml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ name = "bytestring"
 path = "src/lib.rs"
 
 [dependencies]
-bytes = "1.2"
+bytes = { version = "1.2", default-features = false }
 serde = { version = "1.0", optional = true }
 
 [dev-dependencies]