Beginning with version 5.0, Activeworlds now supports Unicode characters and files. Unicode allows programs to display text for most of the worlds varying writing systems. In particular, this will give the browser to native support for Asian character sets such as Japanese and Chinese.

In previous versions of Activeworlds, users who preferred these character sets would find using Activeworlds to be difficult. The ini file could not properly store world names and user names containing these special characters.

In particular, the browser now supports Unicode in:

• Message sets
• Chat window
• World names and world list
• Ini settings
• Chat bubbles
• Administration dialogs and other interface elements