diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 31565cee6..312bf3d5f 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -15,6 +15,18 @@ $ pip install --user --upgrade --pre libtmux
 
 <!-- To maintainers and contributors: Please add notes for the forthcoming version above -->
 
+### Bug fixes
+
+- `tmux_cmd`: Migrate to to `text=True`
+
+  This deprecates usage of `console_to_str()` and `str_from_console()`.
+
+  Resolves #558 via #560.
+
+- compat: Remove `console_to_str()` and `str_from_console()`
+
+  These are both deprecated artifacts of libtmux' Python 2.x compatiblity layer.
+
 ## libtmux 0.41.0 (2025-02-02)
 
 ### Fixes
diff --git a/src/libtmux/_compat.py b/src/libtmux/_compat.py
index fd6fab772..acf5ddbe6 100644
--- a/src/libtmux/_compat.py
+++ b/src/libtmux/_compat.py
@@ -7,14 +7,6 @@
 console_encoding = sys.stdout.encoding
 
 
-def console_to_str(s: bytes) -> str:
-    """From pypa/pip project, pip.backwardwardcompat. License MIT."""
-    try:
-        return s.decode(console_encoding, "ignore")
-    except UnicodeDecodeError:
-        return s.decode("utf_8", "ignore")
-
-
 # TODO Consider removing, reraise does not seem to be called anywhere
 def reraise(
     tp: t.Type[BaseException],
@@ -26,13 +18,6 @@ def reraise(
     raise value
 
 
-def str_from_console(s: t.Union[str, bytes]) -> str:
-    try:
-        return str(s)
-    except UnicodeDecodeError:
-        return str(s, encoding="utf_8") if isinstance(s, bytes) else s
-
-
 import re
 from typing import Iterator, List, Tuple
 
diff --git a/src/libtmux/common.py b/src/libtmux/common.py
index 83bfb5cd2..db0b4151f 100644
--- a/src/libtmux/common.py
+++ b/src/libtmux/common.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 import typing as t
 
 from . import exc
-from ._compat import LooseVersion, console_to_str, str_from_console
+from ._compat import LooseVersion
 
 if t.TYPE_CHECKING:
     from collections.abc import Callable
@@ -226,7 +226,7 @@ def __init__(self, *args: t.Any) -> None:
 
         cmd = [tmux_bin]
         cmd += args  # add the command arguments to cmd
-        cmd = [str_from_console(c) for c in cmd]
+        cmd = [str(c) for c in cmd]
 
         self.cmd = cmd
 
@@ -235,6 +235,8 @@ def __init__(self, *args: t.Any) -> None:
                 cmd,
                 stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
                 stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
+                text=True,
+                errors="backslashreplace",
             )
             stdout, stderr = self.process.communicate()
             returncode = self.process.returncode
@@ -244,14 +246,12 @@ def __init__(self, *args: t.Any) -> None:
 
         self.returncode = returncode
 
-        stdout_str = console_to_str(stdout)
-        stdout_split = stdout_str.split("\n")
+        stdout_split = stdout.split("\n")
         # remove trailing newlines from stdout
         while stdout_split and stdout_split[-1] == "":
             stdout_split.pop()
 
-        stderr_str = console_to_str(stderr)
-        stderr_split = stderr_str.split("\n")
+        stderr_split = stderr.split("\n")
         self.stderr = list(filter(None, stderr_split))  # filter empty values
 
         if "has-session" in cmd and len(self.stderr) and not stdout_split: