diff --git a/services/presence/psutils.py b/services/presence/psutils.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..995ea3ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/presence/psutils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+# Copyright (C) 2007, Red Hat, Inc.
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+# Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
+
+
+def bytes_to_string(bytes):
+    # Handle both DBus byte arrays and strings
+    try:
+        # DBus Byte array
+        ret = ''.join([chr(item) for item in bytes])
+    except TypeError:
+        # Python string
+        ret = ''.join([str(item) for item in bytes])
+    return ret