diff --git a/lib/pushprocessor.js b/lib/pushprocessor.js
index 95a90a99b..c6774f318 100644
--- a/lib/pushprocessor.js
+++ b/lib/pushprocessor.js
@@ -160,7 +160,9 @@ function PushProcessor(client) {
 
         var displayName = room.currentState.getMember(client.credentials.userId).name;
 
-        var pat = new RegExp("\\b" + escapeRegExp(displayName) + "\\b", 'i');
+        // N.B. we can't use \b as it chokes on unicode. however \W seems to be okay
+        // as shorthand for [^0-9A-Za-z_].
+        var pat = new RegExp("(^|\\W)" + escapeRegExp(displayName) + "(\\W|$)", 'i');
         return ev.content.body.search(pat) > -1;
     };
 
@@ -174,7 +176,7 @@ function PushProcessor(client) {
 
         var pat;
         if (cond.key == 'content.body') {
-            pat = '\\b' + globToRegexp(cond.pattern) + '\\b';
+            pat = '(^|\\W)' + globToRegexp(cond.pattern) + '(\\W|$)';
         } else {
             pat = '^' + globToRegexp(cond.pattern) + '$';
         }