diff --git a/docs/notify-send.xml b/docs/notify-send.xml
index 0f36fa0..041466a 100644
--- a/docs/notify-send.xml
+++ b/docs/notify-send.xml
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@
       <varlistentry>
         <term><option>-h</option>, <option>--hint</option>=<replaceable>TYPE</replaceable>:<replaceable>NAME</replaceable>:<replaceable>VALUE</replaceable> </term>
         <listitem>
-          <para>Specifies basic extra data to pass. Valid types are <literal>BOOLEAN</literal>, <literal>INT</literal>, <literal>DOUBLE</literal>, <literal>STRING</literal> and <literal>BYTE</literal>.</para>
+          <para>Specifies basic extra data to pass. Valid types are <literal>BOOLEAN</literal>, <literal>INT</literal>, <literal>DOUBLE</literal>, <literal>STRING</literal>, <literal>BYTE</literal> and <literal>VARIANT</literal>.</para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
       <varlistentry>
diff --git a/tools/notify-send.c b/tools/notify-send.c
index 8d3898d..04eb770 100644
--- a/tools/notify-send.c
+++ b/tools/notify-send.c
@@ -111,6 +111,15 @@ notify_notification_set_hint_variant (NotifyNotification *notification,
 
                 notify_notification_set_hint (notification, key,
                                               g_variant_new_boolean (h_boolean));
+        } else if (g_ascii_strcasecmp (type, "variant") == 0) {
+                GVariant *variant = g_variant_parse (NULL, value, NULL, NULL, NULL);
+
+                if (variant != NULL) {
+                        notify_notification_set_hint (notification, key, variant);
+                } else {
+                        conv_error = TRUE;
+                }
+
         } else {
                 *error = g_error_new (G_OPTION_ERROR,
                                       G_OPTION_ERROR_BAD_VALUE,
@@ -208,7 +217,7 @@ main (int argc, char *argv[])
                  N_("TYPE[,TYPE...]")},
                 {"hint", 'h', 0, G_OPTION_ARG_FILENAME_ARRAY, &hints,
                  N_
-                 ("Specifies basic extra data to pass. Valid types are boolean, int, double, string and byte."),
+                 ("Specifies basic extra data to pass. Valid types are boolean, int, double, string, byte and variant."),
                  N_("TYPE:NAME:VALUE")},
                 {"print-id", 'p', 0, G_OPTION_ARG_NONE, &print_id,
                  N_ ("Print the notification ID."), NULL},