diff --git a/spring-webflux/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/reactive/socket/WebSocketMessage.java b/spring-webflux/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/reactive/socket/WebSocketMessage.java
index 4d05bb58487..228c5bab1a3 100644
--- a/spring-webflux/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/reactive/socket/WebSocketMessage.java
+++ b/spring-webflux/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/reactive/socket/WebSocketMessage.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2002-2016 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2002-2018 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
  */
 package org.springframework.web.reactive.socket;
 
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 
 import org.springframework.core.io.buffer.DataBuffer;
@@ -67,13 +68,24 @@ public class WebSocketMessage {
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * Return the message payload as UTF-8 text. This is a useful for text
-	 * WebSocket messages.
+	 * A variant of {@link #getPayloadAsText(Charset)} that uses {@code UTF-8}
+	 * for decoding the raw content to text.
 	 */
 	public String getPayloadAsText() {
+		return getPayloadAsText(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * A shortcut for decoding the raw content of the message to text with the
+	 * given character encoding. This is useful for text WebSocket messages, or
+	 * otherwise when the payload is expected to contain text.
+	 * @param charset the character encoding
+	 * @since 5.0.5
+	 */
+	public String getPayloadAsText(Charset charset) {
 		byte[] bytes = new byte[this.payload.readableByteCount()];
 		this.payload.read(bytes);
-		return new String(bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+		return new String(bytes, charset);
 	}
 
 	/**
diff --git a/spring-webflux/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/reactive/socket/WebSocketSession.java b/spring-webflux/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/reactive/socket/WebSocketSession.java
index e1bd8c5359c..bca6047a2fc 100644
--- a/spring-webflux/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/reactive/socket/WebSocketSession.java
+++ b/spring-webflux/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/reactive/socket/WebSocketSession.java
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ public interface WebSocketSession {
 	DataBufferFactory bufferFactory();
 
 	/**
-	 * Get the flux of incoming messages.
+	 * Get access to the stream of incoming messages.
 	 */
 	Flux<WebSocketMessage> receive();