diff --git a/src/message_api.cc b/src/message_api.cc
index 07eca57..0a2e44f 100644
--- a/src/message_api.cc
+++ b/src/message_api.cc
@@ -83,6 +83,21 @@ namespace pEp {
             free(dst);
             return _dst;
         }
+
+        object sync_encode(string text)
+        {
+            char *data = NULL;
+            size_t size = 0;
+            PEP_STATUS status = encode_sync_msg(text.c_str(), &data, &size);
+            _throw_status(status);
+
+            PyObject *ba = PyBytes_FromStringAndSize(data, size);
+            free(data);
+            if (!ba)
+                throw bad_alloc();
+
+            return object(handle<>(ba));
+        }
 #endif
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/message_api.hh b/src/message_api.hh
index fc8fa27..2b93719 100644
--- a/src/message_api.hh
+++ b/src/message_api.hh
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ namespace pEp {
 #ifndef NDEBUG
         void _config_keep_sync_msg(bool enabled);
         string sync_decode(object buffer);
+        object sync_encode(string text);
 #endif
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/pEpmodule.cc b/src/pEpmodule.cc
index d7fe418..73b0e4b 100644
--- a/src/pEpmodule.cc
+++ b/src/pEpmodule.cc
@@ -206,7 +206,8 @@ BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(pEp)
     def("trustwords", &_trustwords, "calculate trustwords for two Identities");
 #ifndef NDEBUG
     def("config_keep_sync_msg", &_config_keep_sync_msg, "configure if sync messages are being kept or not");
-    def("sync_decode", &sync_decode, "decode sync message to XER/XML");
+    def("sync_decode", &sync_decode, "decode sync message to XER/XML text");
+    def("sync_encode", &sync_encode, "encode sync message from XER/XML text");
 #endif
 
     // key sync API