diff --git a/src/syntax_highlighting/consts.py b/src/syntax_highlighting/consts.py
index a315a7a..5649bd5 100644
--- a/src/syntax_highlighting/consts.py
+++ b/src/syntax_highlighting/consts.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 import os
 from anki import version
 
-anki21 = version.startswith("2.1.")
+anki21 = not hasattr(str, 'decode')
 sys_encoding = sys.getfilesystemencoding()
 
 if anki21: