diff --git a/lzstring/__init__.py b/lzstring/__init__.py
index a264411..cf91d62 100644
--- a/lzstring/__init__.py
+++ b/lzstring/__init__.py
@@ -50,7 +50,10 @@ def _compress(uncompressed, bitsPerChar, getCharFromInt):
     context_data_position = 0
 
     for ii in range(len(uncompressed)):
-        context_c = uncompressed[ii]
+        if isinstance(uncompressed, (bytes)):
+            context_c = chr(uncompressed[ii])
+        else:
+            context_c = uncompressed[ii]
         if context_c not in context_dictionary:
             context_dictionary[context_c] = context_dictSize
             context_dictSize += 1
@@ -373,6 +376,11 @@ class LZString(object):
     def compress(uncompressed):
         return _compress(uncompressed, 16, chr)
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def compressToUint8Array(uncompressed):
+        return bytes([ord(x) for x in _compress(uncompressed, 8, chr)])
+
+
     @staticmethod
     def compressToUTF16(uncompressed):
         if uncompressed is None:
@@ -404,6 +412,14 @@ def decompress(compressed):
             return None
         return _decompress(len(compressed), 32768, lambda index: ord(compressed[index]))
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def decompressFromUint8Array(compressed):
+        if compressed is None:
+            return ""
+        if compressed == "":
+            return None
+        return _decompress(len(compressed), 128, lambda index: compressed[index])
+
     @staticmethod
     def decompressFromUTF16(compressed):
         if compressed is None: