diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index a8026b8..876d953 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -44,12 +44,14 @@ tokio-stream = {version = "0.1.9", features = ["net"]}
 warp = "0.3.2"
 
 [features]
+# This is not a real user-facing feature, don't enable it directly.
+_compress-any = []
 basic-auth = ["base64"]
 charsets = ["encoding_rs", "encoding_rs_io"]
 # The following three compress features are mutually exclusive.
-compress = ["flate2/default"]
-compress-zlib = ["flate2/zlib"]
-compress-zlib-ng = ["flate2/zlib-ng"]
+compress = ["flate2/default", "_compress-any"]
+compress-zlib = ["flate2/zlib", "_compress-any"]
+compress-zlib-ng = ["flate2/zlib-ng", "_compress-any"]
 default = ["compress", "tls"]
 form = ["serde", "serde_urlencoded"]
 json = ["serde", "serde_json"]
diff --git a/src/parsing/compressed_reader.rs b/src/parsing/compressed_reader.rs
index 3c8cd7d..9a626b4 100644
--- a/src/parsing/compressed_reader.rs
+++ b/src/parsing/compressed_reader.rs
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 use std::io::{self, Read};
 
-#[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+#[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
 use flate2::bufread::{DeflateDecoder, GzDecoder};
 use http::header::HeaderMap;
-#[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+#[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
 use http::header::{CONTENT_ENCODING, TRANSFER_ENCODING};
-#[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+#[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
 use http::Method;
 
 use crate::error::Result;
@@ -16,18 +16,18 @@ use crate::request::PreparedRequest;
 #[derive(Debug)]
 pub enum CompressedReader {
     Plain(BodyReader),
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     Deflate(DeflateDecoder<BodyReader>),
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     Gzip(GzDecoder<BodyReader>),
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+#[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
 fn have_encoding_item(value: &str, enc: &str) -> bool {
     value.split(',').map(|s| s.trim()).any(|s| s.eq_ignore_ascii_case(enc))
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+#[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
 fn have_encoding_content_encoding(headers: &HeaderMap, enc: &str) -> bool {
     headers
         .get_all(CONTENT_ENCODING)
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ fn have_encoding_content_encoding(headers: &HeaderMap, enc: &str) -> bool {
         .any(|val| have_encoding_item(val, enc))
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+#[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
 fn have_encoding_transfer_encoding(headers: &HeaderMap, enc: &str) -> bool {
     headers
         .get_all(TRANSFER_ENCODING)
@@ -45,13 +45,13 @@ fn have_encoding_transfer_encoding(headers: &HeaderMap, enc: &str) -> bool {
         .any(|val| have_encoding_item(val, enc))
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+#[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
 fn have_encoding(headers: &HeaderMap, enc: &str) -> bool {
     have_encoding_content_encoding(headers, enc) || have_encoding_transfer_encoding(headers, enc)
 }
 
 impl CompressedReader {
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     pub fn new<B>(headers: &HeaderMap, request: &PreparedRequest<B>, reader: BodyReader) -> Result<CompressedReader> {
         if request.method() != Method::HEAD {
             if have_encoding(headers, "gzip") {
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ impl CompressedReader {
         Ok(CompressedReader::Plain(reader))
     }
 
-    #[cfg(not(feature = "compress"))]
+    #[cfg(not(feature = "_compress-any"))]
     pub fn new<B>(_: &HeaderMap, _: &PreparedRequest<B>, reader: BodyReader) -> Result<CompressedReader> {
         Ok(CompressedReader::Plain(reader))
     }
@@ -80,9 +80,9 @@ impl Read for CompressedReader {
         // TODO: gzip does not read until EOF, leaving some data in the buffer.
         match self {
             CompressedReader::Plain(s) => s.read(buf),
-            #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+            #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
             CompressedReader::Deflate(s) => s.read(buf),
-            #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+            #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
             CompressedReader::Gzip(s) => s.read(buf),
         }
     }
@@ -92,23 +92,23 @@ impl Read for CompressedReader {
 mod tests {
     use std::io::prelude::*;
 
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     use flate2::{
         write::{DeflateEncoder, GzEncoder},
         Compression,
     };
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     use http::header::{HeaderMap, HeaderValue};
     use http::Method;
 
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     use super::have_encoding;
     use crate::parsing::response::parse_response;
     use crate::streams::BaseStream;
     use crate::PreparedRequest;
 
     #[test]
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn test_have_encoding_none() {
         let mut headers = HeaderMap::new();
         headers.insert("content-encoding", HeaderValue::from_static("gzip"));
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn test_have_encoding_content_encoding_simple() {
         let mut headers = HeaderMap::new();
         headers.insert("content-encoding", HeaderValue::from_static("gzip"));
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn test_have_encoding_content_encoding_multi() {
         let mut headers = HeaderMap::new();
         headers.insert("content-encoding", HeaderValue::from_static("identity, deflate"));
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn test_have_encoding_transfer_encoding_simple() {
         let mut headers = HeaderMap::new();
         headers.insert("transfer-encoding", HeaderValue::from_static("deflate"));
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn test_have_encoding_transfer_encoding_multi() {
         let mut headers = HeaderMap::new();
         headers.insert("transfer-encoding", HeaderValue::from_static("gzip, chunked"));
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn test_stream_deflate() {
         let mut payload = Vec::new();
         let mut enc = DeflateEncoder::new(&mut payload, Compression::default());
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn test_stream_gzip() {
         let mut payload = Vec::new();
         let mut enc = GzEncoder::new(&mut payload, Compression::default());
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn test_no_body_with_gzip() {
         let buf = b"HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\ncontent-encoding: gzip\r\n\r\n";
 
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn test_no_body_with_gzip_head() {
         let buf = b"HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\ncontent-encoding: gzip\r\n\r\n";
 
diff --git a/src/request/builder.rs b/src/request/builder.rs
index 2b62b1e..fdef145 100644
--- a/src/request/builder.rs
+++ b/src/request/builder.rs
@@ -358,7 +358,7 @@ impl<B> RequestBuilder<B> {
     ///
     /// This value defaults to true. Note that this only lets the browser know that this request supports
     /// compression, the server might choose not to compress the content.
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     pub fn allow_compression(mut self, allow_compression: bool) -> Self {
         self.base_settings.allow_compression = allow_compression;
         self
@@ -579,7 +579,7 @@ mod tests {
         }
     }
 
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn assert_request_content(
         builder: RequestBuilder,
         status_line: &str,
@@ -615,7 +615,7 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn test_request_builder_write_request_no_query() {
         assert_request_content(
             RequestBuilder::new(Method::GET, "http://localhost:1337/foo"),
@@ -631,7 +631,7 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn test_request_builder_write_request_with_query() {
         assert_request_content(
             RequestBuilder::new(Method::GET, "http://localhost:1337/foo").param("hello", "world"),
diff --git a/src/request/mod.rs b/src/request/mod.rs
index 76e54cc..60873a8 100644
--- a/src/request/mod.rs
+++ b/src/request/mod.rs
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ use std::io::{prelude::*, BufWriter};
 use std::str;
 use std::time::Instant;
 
-#[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+#[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
 use http::header::ACCEPT_ENCODING;
 use http::{
     header::{HeaderValue, IntoHeaderName, HOST},
@@ -85,12 +85,12 @@ impl PreparedRequest<body::Empty> {
 }
 
 impl<B> PreparedRequest<B> {
-    #[cfg(not(feature = "compress"))]
+    #[cfg(not(feature = "_compress-any"))]
     fn set_compression(&mut self) -> Result {
         Ok(())
     }
 
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     fn set_compression(&mut self) -> Result {
         if self.base_settings.allow_compression {
             header_insert(&mut self.base_settings.headers, ACCEPT_ENCODING, "gzip, deflate")?;
diff --git a/src/request/session.rs b/src/request/session.rs
index cf7e3fd..93fcea1 100644
--- a/src/request/session.rs
+++ b/src/request/session.rs
@@ -214,7 +214,7 @@ impl Session {
     ///
     /// This value defaults to true. Note that this only lets the browser know that this `Request` supports
     /// compression, the server might choose not to compress the content.
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     pub fn allow_compression(&mut self, allow_compression: bool) {
         self.base_settings.allow_compression = allow_compression;
     }
diff --git a/src/request/settings.rs b/src/request/settings.rs
index 3c98d3d..d897bb1 100644
--- a/src/request/settings.rs
+++ b/src/request/settings.rs
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ pub struct BaseSettings {
 
     #[cfg(feature = "charsets")]
     pub default_charset: Option<Charset>,
-    #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+    #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
     pub allow_compression: bool,
 }
 
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ impl Default for BaseSettings {
 
             #[cfg(feature = "charsets")]
             default_charset: None,
-            #[cfg(feature = "compress")]
+            #[cfg(feature = "_compress-any")]
             allow_compression: true,
         }
     }