diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e4006fe..421268b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 All notable changes to similar are documented here.
 
+## 1.2.0
+
+* Make the unicode feature optional for inline diffing.
+
 ## 1.1.0
 
 * More generic lifetimes for `iter_changes` and `iter_inline_changes`.
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index be135cf..b990bab 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ all-features = true
 [features]
 default = ["text"]
 text = []
-inline = ["unicode"]
+inline = ["text"]
 
 # this annoyingly currently also turns on bstr and not just bstr/unicode
 # unclear if this is fixable
diff --git a/src/text/inline.rs b/src/text/inline.rs
index 0b368f3..cfedd21 100644
--- a/src/text/inline.rs
+++ b/src/text/inline.rs
@@ -18,7 +18,17 @@ impl<'bufs, 's, T: DiffableStr + ?Sized> MultiLookup<'bufs, 's, T> {
         let mut seqs = Vec::new();
         for (string_idx, string) in strings.iter().enumerate() {
             let mut offset = 0;
-            for word in string.tokenize_unicode_words() {
+            let iter = {
+                #[cfg(feature = "unicode")]
+                {
+                    string.tokenize_unicode_words()
+                }
+                #[cfg(not(feature = "unicode"))]
+                {
+                    string.tokenize_words()
+                }
+            };
+            for word in iter {
                 seqs.push((word, string_idx, offset));
                 offset += word.len();
             }
diff --git a/src/text/mod.rs b/src/text/mod.rs
index 9b66c58..69c41f4 100644
--- a/src/text/mod.rs
+++ b/src/text/mod.rs
@@ -485,6 +485,12 @@ impl<'old, 'new, 'bufs, T: DiffableStr + ?Sized + 'old + 'new> TextDiff<'old, 'n
     /// level diff on adjacent line replacements.  The exact behavior of
     /// this function with regards to how it detects those inline changes
     /// is currently not defined and will likely change over time.
+    ///
+    /// As of similar 1.2.0 the behavior of this function changes depending on
+    /// if the `unicode` feature is enabled or not.  It will prefer unicode word
+    /// splitting over word splitting depending on the feature flag.
+    ///
+    /// Requires the `inline` feature.
     #[cfg(feature = "inline")]
     pub fn iter_inline_changes<'x, 'slf>(
         &'slf self,