diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 0c001b1..092581d 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -313,6 +313,24 @@ fi
 
 AM_CONDITIONAL(ENABLE_PYTHON, test x"$enable_python" = "xyes")
 
+AC_ARG_ENABLE([uchardet],
+	      AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-uchardet[=@<:@no/auto/yes@:>@]],[Build with uchardet support]),
+	      [enable_uchardet=$enableval],
+	      [enable_uchardet="auto"])
+
+if test "x$enable_uchardet" = "xauto"; then
+	PKG_CHECK_EXISTS([uchardet], [enable_uchardet=yes],[enable_uchardet=no])
+fi
+
+if test "x$enable_uchardet" = "xyes"; then
+	PKG_CHECK_MODULES(UCHARDET, [uchardet])
+	AC_SUBST(UCHARDET_CFLAGS)
+	AC_SUBST(UCHARDET_LIBS)
+	AC_DEFINE(ENABLE_UCHARDET, 1, [Define to 1 if to use uchardet for encoding detection])
+fi
+
+AM_CONDITIONAL(ENABLE_UCHARDET, test x"$enable_uchardet" = "xyes")
+
 dnl ================================================================
 dnl Start of pkg-config checks
 dnl ================================================================
diff --git a/gedit/Makefile.am b/gedit/Makefile.am
index a386e07..514f3bd 100644
--- a/gedit/Makefile.am
+++ b/gedit/Makefile.am
@@ -238,6 +238,11 @@ if !ENABLE_GVFS_METADATA
 libgedit_la_SOURCES += gedit-metadata-manager.c
 endif
 
+if ENABLE_UCHARDET
+INCLUDES += $(UCHARDET_CFLAGS)
+libgedit_la_LIBADD += $(UCHARDET_LIBS)
+endif
+
 if !PLATFORM_WIN32
 libgedit_la_SOURCES += gedit-fifo.c
 NOINST_H_FILES += gedit-fifo.h
diff --git a/gedit/gedit-document-output-stream.c b/gedit/gedit-document-output-stream.c
index ebc8f80..346ed17 100644
--- a/gedit/gedit-document-output-stream.c
+++ b/gedit/gedit-document-output-stream.c
@@ -30,6 +30,11 @@
 #include "gedit-document-output-stream.h"
 #include "gedit-debug.h"
 
+#ifdef ENABLE_UCHARDET
+#include "uchardet.h"
+#include "gedit-encodings.h"
+#endif
+
 /* NOTE: never use async methods on this stream, the stream is just
  * a wrapper around GtkTextBuffer api so that we can use GIO Stream
  * methods, but the undelying code operates on a GtkTextBuffer, so
@@ -355,6 +360,45 @@ try_convert (GCharsetConverter *converter,
 	return ret;
 }
 
+#ifdef ENABLE_UCHARDET
+static void detect_encoding(GeditDocumentOutputStream *stream,
+			    const void *inbuf,
+			    gsize inbuf_size)
+{
+	uchardet_t ud;
+	const char *charset;
+	const GeditEncoding *enc;
+	GSList *list = stream->priv->encodings;
+
+	ud = uchardet_new();
+	uchardet_handle_data(ud, inbuf, inbuf_size);
+	uchardet_data_end(ud);
+
+	charset = uchardet_get_charset(ud);
+	uchardet_delete(ud);
+
+	if (!charset)
+		return;
+
+	enc = gedit_encoding_get_from_charset (charset);
+	if (enc == NULL)
+		return;
+
+	/* check if the encoding is already on the list */
+	list = stream->priv->encodings;
+	while (list != NULL) {
+		if (list->data == (gpointer)enc)
+			return list;
+
+		list = g_slist_next(list);
+	}
+
+	/* prepend the detected charset */
+	list = g_slist_prepend(stream->priv->encodings, (gpointer)enc);
+	stream->priv->encodings = list;
+}
+#endif
+
 static GCharsetConverter *
 guess_encoding (GeditDocumentOutputStream *stream,
 		const void                *inbuf,
@@ -368,6 +412,10 @@ guess_encoding (GeditDocumentOutputStream *stream,
 		return NULL;
 	}
 
+#ifdef ENABLE_UCHARDET
+	detect_encoding(stream, inbuf, inbuf_size);
+#endif
+
 	if (stream->priv->encodings != NULL &&
 	    stream->priv->encodings->next == NULL)
 	{