diff --git a/src/Discord.Net.WebSocket/API/Gateway/IdentifyParams.cs b/src/Discord.Net.WebSocket/API/Gateway/IdentifyParams.cs
index e87c58221..af16f22f5 100644
--- a/src/Discord.Net.WebSocket/API/Gateway/IdentifyParams.cs
+++ b/src/Discord.Net.WebSocket/API/Gateway/IdentifyParams.cs
@@ -13,8 +13,6 @@ namespace Discord.API.Gateway
         public IDictionary<string, string> Properties { get; set; }
         [JsonProperty("large_threshold")]
         public int LargeThreshold { get; set; }
-        [JsonProperty("compress")]
-        public bool UseCompression { get; set; }
         [JsonProperty("shard")]
         public Optional<int[]> ShardingParams { get; set; }
     }
diff --git a/src/Discord.Net.WebSocket/DiscordSocketApiClient.cs b/src/Discord.Net.WebSocket/DiscordSocketApiClient.cs
index 7d680eaf2..72781204c 100644
--- a/src/Discord.Net.WebSocket/DiscordSocketApiClient.cs
+++ b/src/Discord.Net.WebSocket/DiscordSocketApiClient.cs
@@ -29,7 +29,11 @@ namespace Discord.API
         private CancellationTokenSource _connectCancelToken;
         private string _gatewayUrl;
         private bool _isExplicitUrl;
-        
+
+        //Store our decompression streams for zlib shared state
+        private MemoryStream _compressed;
+        private DeflateStream _decompressor;
+
         internal IWebSocketClient WebSocketClient { get; }
 
         public ConnectionState ConnectionState { get; private set; }
@@ -43,14 +47,29 @@ namespace Discord.API
                 _isExplicitUrl = true;
             WebSocketClient = webSocketProvider();
             //WebSocketClient.SetHeader("user-agent", DiscordConfig.UserAgent); (Causes issues in .NET Framework 4.6+)
+
             WebSocketClient.BinaryMessage += async (data, index, count) =>
             {
-                using (var compressed = new MemoryStream(data, index + 2, count - 2))
                 using (var decompressed = new MemoryStream())
                 {
-                    using (var zlib = new DeflateStream(compressed, CompressionMode.Decompress))
-                        zlib.CopyTo(decompressed);
+                    if (data[0] == 0x78)
+                    {
+                        //Strip the zlib header
+                        _compressed.Write(data, index + 2, count - 2);
+                        _compressed.SetLength(count - 2);
+                    }
+                    else
+                    {
+                        _compressed.Write(data, index, count);
+                        _compressed.SetLength(count);
+                    }
+
+                    //Reset positions so we don't run out of memory
+                    _compressed.Position = 0;
+                    _decompressor.CopyTo(decompressed);
+                    _compressed.Position = 0;
                     decompressed.Position = 0;
+
                     using (var reader = new StreamReader(decompressed))
                     using (var jsonReader = new JsonTextReader(reader))
                     {
@@ -76,6 +95,7 @@ namespace Discord.API
                 await _disconnectedEvent.InvokeAsync(ex).ConfigureAwait(false);
             };
         }
+
         internal override void Dispose(bool disposing)
         {
             if (!_isDisposed)
@@ -84,6 +104,8 @@ namespace Discord.API
                 {
                     _connectCancelToken?.Dispose();
                     (WebSocketClient as IDisposable)?.Dispose();
+                    _decompressor?.Dispose();
+                    _compressed?.Dispose();
                 }
                 _isDisposed = true;
             }
@@ -105,6 +127,12 @@ namespace Discord.API
             if (WebSocketClient == null)
                 throw new NotSupportedException("This client is not configured with websocket support.");
 
+            //Re-create streams to reset the zlib state
+            _compressed?.Dispose();
+            _decompressor?.Dispose();
+            _compressed = new MemoryStream();
+            _decompressor = new DeflateStream(_compressed, CompressionMode.Decompress);
+
             ConnectionState = ConnectionState.Connecting;
             try
             {
@@ -115,7 +143,7 @@ namespace Discord.API
                 if (!_isExplicitUrl)
                 {
                     var gatewayResponse = await GetGatewayAsync().ConfigureAwait(false);
-                    _gatewayUrl = $"{gatewayResponse.Url}?v={DiscordConfig.APIVersion}&encoding={DiscordSocketConfig.GatewayEncoding}";
+                    _gatewayUrl = $"{gatewayResponse.Url}?v={DiscordConfig.APIVersion}&encoding={DiscordSocketConfig.GatewayEncoding}&compress=zlib-stream";
                 }
                 await WebSocketClient.ConnectAsync(_gatewayUrl).ConfigureAwait(false);
 
@@ -191,7 +219,7 @@ namespace Discord.API
             options = RequestOptions.CreateOrClone(options);
             return await SendAsync<GetBotGatewayResponse>("GET", () => "gateway/bot", new BucketIds(), options: options).ConfigureAwait(false);
         }
-        public async Task SendIdentifyAsync(int largeThreshold = 100, bool useCompression = true, int shardID = 0, int totalShards = 1, RequestOptions options = null)
+        public async Task SendIdentifyAsync(int largeThreshold = 100, int shardID = 0, int totalShards = 1, RequestOptions options = null)
         {
             options = RequestOptions.CreateOrClone(options);
             var props = new Dictionary<string, string>
@@ -202,8 +230,7 @@ namespace Discord.API
             {
                 Token = AuthToken,
                 Properties = props,
-                LargeThreshold = largeThreshold,
-                UseCompression = useCompression,
+                LargeThreshold = largeThreshold
             };
             if (totalShards > 1)
                 msg.ShardingParams = new int[] { shardID, totalShards };