diff --git a/app/notifications/receive_notifications.py b/app/notifications/receive_notifications.py
index ac116b28a..fa9d11146 100644
--- a/app/notifications/receive_notifications.py
+++ b/app/notifications/receive_notifications.py
@@ -82,7 +82,11 @@ def receive_firetext_sms():
 
 
 def format_mmg_message(message):
-    return unquote(message.replace('+', ' '))
+    return unescape_string(unquote(message.replace('+', ' ')))
+
+
+def unescape_string(string):
+    return string.encode('raw_unicode_escape').decode('unicode_escape')
 
 
 def format_mmg_datetime(date):
diff --git a/tests/app/notifications/test_receive_notification.py b/tests/app/notifications/test_receive_notification.py
index 26a628bb7..d5d504099 100644
--- a/tests/app/notifications/test_receive_notification.py
+++ b/tests/app/notifications/test_receive_notification.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ from app.notifications.receive_notifications import (
     create_inbound_sms_object,
     strip_leading_forty_four,
     has_inbound_sms_permissions,
+    unescape_string,
 )
 
 from app.models import InboundSms, EMAIL_TYPE, SMS_TYPE, INBOUND_SMS_TYPE
@@ -166,6 +167,36 @@ def test_format_mmg_message(message, expected_output):
     assert format_mmg_message(message) == expected_output
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('raw, expected', [
+    (
+        '😬',
+        '😬',
+    ),
+    (
+        '1\\n2',
+        '1\n2',
+    ),
+    (
+        '\\\'"\\\'',
+        '\'"\'',
+    ),
+    (
+        """
+
+        """,
+        """
+
+        """,
+    ),
+    (
+        '\x79 \\x79 \\\\x79',  # we should never see the middle one
+        'y y \\x79',
+    ),
+])
+def test_unescape_string(raw, expected):
+    assert unescape_string(raw) == expected
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize('provider_date, expected_output', [
     ('2017-01-21+11%3A56%3A11', datetime(2017, 1, 21, 11, 56, 11)),
     ('2017-05-21+11%3A56%3A11', datetime(2017, 5, 21, 10, 56, 11))