diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/serialization/Serialization.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/serialization/Serialization.scala
index 09f29b2b50..d9b7bd3079 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/serialization/Serialization.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/serialization/Serialization.scala
@@ -205,7 +205,15 @@ class Serialization(val system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends Extension {
    *  It is primarily ordered by the most specific classes first, and secondly in the configured order.
    */
   private[akka] val bindings: immutable.Seq[ClassSerializer] =
-    sort(for ((k: String, v: String) ← settings.SerializationBindings if v != "none") yield (system.dynamicAccess.getClassFor[Any](k).get, serializers(v))).to[immutable.Seq]
+    sort(for ((k: String, v: String) ← settings.SerializationBindings if v != "none" && checkGoogleProtobuf(k))
+      yield (system.dynamicAccess.getClassFor[Any](k).get, serializers(v))).to[immutable.Seq]
+
+  // com.google.protobuf serialization binding is only used if the class can be loaded,
+  // i.e. com.google.protobuf dependency has been added in the application project.
+  // The reason for this special case is for backwards compatibility so that we still can
+  // include "com.google.protobuf.GeneratedMessage" = proto in configured serialization-bindings.
+  private def checkGoogleProtobuf(className: String): Boolean =
+    (!className.startsWith("com.google.protobuf") || system.dynamicAccess.getClassFor[Any](className).isSuccess)
 
   /**
    * Sort so that subtypes always precede their supertypes, but without
diff --git a/akka-docs/rst/project/migration-guide-2.3.x-2.4.x.rst b/akka-docs/rst/project/migration-guide-2.3.x-2.4.x.rst
index 1cbcbe3b7d..ed37821885 100644
--- a/akka-docs/rst/project/migration-guide-2.3.x-2.4.x.rst
+++ b/akka-docs/rst/project/migration-guide-2.3.x-2.4.x.rst
@@ -70,6 +70,18 @@ The following, previously deprecated, features have been removed:
 
 * Java API TestKit.dilated, moved to JavaTestKit.dilated
 
+Protobuf Dependency
+===================
+
+The transitive dependency to Protobuf has been removed to make it possible to use any version
+of Protobuf for the application messages. If you use Protobuf in your application you need
+to add the following dependency with desired version number::
+
+    "com.google.protobuf" % "protobuf-java" % "2.5.0" 
+
+Internally Akka is using an embedded version of protobuf that corresponds to ``com.google.protobuf/protobuf-java``
+version 2.5.0. The package name of the embedded classes has been changed to ``akka.protobuf``.
+
 Added parameter validation to RootActorPath
 ===========================================
 Previously ``akka.actor.RootActorPath`` allowed passing in arbitrary strings into its name parameter,
diff --git a/akka-remote/src/main/resources/reference.conf b/akka-remote/src/main/resources/reference.conf
index 7ec4eb18a5..56c3b6d6e7 100644
--- a/akka-remote/src/main/resources/reference.conf
+++ b/akka-remote/src/main/resources/reference.conf
@@ -19,12 +19,21 @@ akka {
     }
 
     serialization-bindings {
+      "akka.actor.ActorSelectionMessage" = akka-containers
+      "akka.remote.DaemonMsgCreate" = daemon-create
+    
       # Since akka.protobuf.Message does not extend Serializable but
       # GeneratedMessage does, need to use the more specific one here in order
-      # to avoid ambiguity
-      "akka.actor.ActorSelectionMessage" = akka-containers
+      # to avoid ambiguity.
       "akka.protobuf.GeneratedMessage" = proto
-      "akka.remote.DaemonMsgCreate" = daemon-create
+      
+      # Since com.google.protobuf.Message does not extend Serializable but
+      # GeneratedMessage does, need to use the more specific one here in order
+      # to avoid ambiguity.
+      # This com.google.protobuf serialization binding is only used if the class can be loaded,
+      # i.e. com.google.protobuf dependency has been added in the application project.
+      "com.google.protobuf.GeneratedMessage" = proto
+      
     }
 
     serialization-identifiers {
diff --git a/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/serialization/ProtobufSerializer.scala b/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/serialization/ProtobufSerializer.scala
index c0553791a4..741c4438b1 100644
--- a/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/serialization/ProtobufSerializer.scala
+++ b/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/serialization/ProtobufSerializer.scala
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference
 import akka.actor.{ ActorRef, ExtendedActorSystem }
 import akka.remote.WireFormats.ActorRefData
 import akka.serialization.{ Serialization, BaseSerializer }
-import akka.protobuf.Message
 
 import scala.annotation.tailrec
 
@@ -35,7 +34,9 @@ object ProtobufSerializer {
 }
 
 /**
- * This Serializer serializes `akka.protobuf.Message`s
+ * This Serializer serializes `akka.protobuf.Message` and `com.google.protobuf.Message`
+ * It is using reflection to find the `parseFrom` and `toByteArray` methods to avoid
+ * dependency to `com.google.protobuf`.
  */
 class ProtobufSerializer(val system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends BaseSerializer {
 
@@ -51,6 +52,7 @@ class ProtobufSerializer(val system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends BaseSerializer
   val ARRAY_OF_BYTE_ARRAY = Array[Class[_]](classOf[Array[Byte]])
 
   private val parsingMethodBindingRef = new AtomicReference[Map[Class[_], Method]](Map.empty)
+  private val toByteArrayMethodBindingRef = new AtomicReference[Map[Class[_], Method]](Map.empty)
 
   override def includeManifest: Boolean = true
 
@@ -72,14 +74,29 @@ class ProtobufSerializer(val system: ExtendedActorSystem) extends BaseSerializer
                 parsingMethod(unCachedParsingMethod)
           }
         }
-        parsingMethod().invoke(null, bytes).asInstanceOf[Message]
+        parsingMethod().invoke(null, bytes)
 
       case None ⇒ throw new IllegalArgumentException("Need a protobuf message class to be able to serialize bytes using protobuf")
     }
   }
 
-  override def toBinary(obj: AnyRef): Array[Byte] = obj match {
-    case message: Message ⇒ message.toByteArray
-    case _                ⇒ throw new IllegalArgumentException(s"Can't serialize a non-protobuf message using protobuf [$obj]")
+  override def toBinary(obj: AnyRef): Array[Byte] = {
+    val clazz = obj.getClass
+    @tailrec
+    def toByteArrayMethod(method: Method = null): Method = {
+      val toByteArrayMethodBinding = toByteArrayMethodBindingRef.get()
+      toByteArrayMethodBinding.get(clazz) match {
+        case Some(cachedtoByteArrayMethod) ⇒ cachedtoByteArrayMethod
+        case None ⇒
+          val unCachedtoByteArrayMethod =
+            if (method eq null) clazz.getMethod("toByteArray")
+            else method
+          if (toByteArrayMethodBindingRef.compareAndSet(toByteArrayMethodBinding, toByteArrayMethodBinding.updated(clazz, unCachedtoByteArrayMethod)))
+            unCachedtoByteArrayMethod
+          else
+            toByteArrayMethod(unCachedtoByteArrayMethod)
+      }
+    }
+    toByteArrayMethod().invoke(obj).asInstanceOf[Array[Byte]]
   }
 }
diff --git a/akka-remote/src/test/scala/akka/remote/serialization/ProtobufSerializerSpec.scala b/akka-remote/src/test/scala/akka/remote/serialization/ProtobufSerializerSpec.scala
index a8ca2ef2d2..bb60d7c678 100644
--- a/akka-remote/src/test/scala/akka/remote/serialization/ProtobufSerializerSpec.scala
+++ b/akka-remote/src/test/scala/akka/remote/serialization/ProtobufSerializerSpec.scala
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ import akka.serialization.SerializationExtension
 import akka.testkit.AkkaSpec
 import akka.remote.WireFormats.SerializedMessage
 import akka.remote.ProtobufProtocol.MyMessage
+import akka.remote.MessageSerializer
+import akka.actor.ExtendedActorSystem
 
 @org.junit.runner.RunWith(classOf[org.scalatest.junit.JUnitRunner])
 class ProtobufSerializerSpec extends AkkaSpec {
@@ -21,6 +23,17 @@ class ProtobufSerializerSpec extends AkkaSpec {
       ser.serializerFor(classOf[MyMessage]).getClass should ===(classOf[ProtobufSerializer])
     }
 
+    "work for SerializedMessage (just an akka.protobuf message)" in {
+      // create a protobuf message
+      val protobufMessage = MessageSerializer.serialize(system.asInstanceOf[ExtendedActorSystem], "hello")
+      // serialize it with ProtobufSerializer
+      val bytes = ser.serialize(protobufMessage).get
+      // deserialize the bytes with ProtobufSerializer
+      val deserialized = ser.deserialize(bytes, protobufMessage.getClass).get.asInstanceOf[SerializedMessage]
+      deserialized.getSerializerId should ===(protobufMessage.getSerializerId)
+      deserialized.getMessage should ===(protobufMessage.getMessage) // same "hello"
+    }
+
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/project/AkkaBuild.scala b/project/AkkaBuild.scala
index 52c6927499..2b6af43911 100644
--- a/project/AkkaBuild.scala
+++ b/project/AkkaBuild.scala
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ object AkkaBuild extends Build {
   lazy val actorTests = Project(
     id = "akka-actor-tests",
     base = file("akka-actor-tests"),
-    dependencies = Seq(testkit % "compile;test->test", protobuf)
+    dependencies = Seq(testkit % "compile;test->test")
   )
 
   lazy val benchJmh = Project(
diff --git a/project/MiMa.scala b/project/MiMa.scala
index 3bb1ea8e65..cf0304fc43 100644
--- a/project/MiMa.scala
+++ b/project/MiMa.scala
@@ -23,6 +23,14 @@ object MiMa extends AutoPlugin {
       case m: MemberProblem => m.ref.owner.fullName != name && m.ref.owner.fullName != (name + '$')
     }
   }
+  
+  case class FilterAnyProblemStartingWith(start: String) extends com.typesafe.tools.mima.core.ProblemFilter {
+    import com.typesafe.tools.mima.core._
+    override def apply(p: Problem): Boolean = p match {
+      case t: TemplateProblem => !t.ref.fullName.startsWith(start)
+      case m: MemberProblem => !m.ref.owner.fullName.startsWith(start)
+    }
+  }
 
   val mimaIgnoredProblems = {
       import com.typesafe.tools.mima.core._
@@ -550,7 +558,15 @@ object MiMa extends AutoPlugin {
       // internal changes introduced by #17253
       ProblemFilters.exclude[IncompatibleResultTypeProblem]("akka.cluster.ClusterDaemon.coreSupervisor"),
       ProblemFilters.exclude[MissingMethodProblem]("akka.cluster.ClusterCoreSupervisor.publisher"),
-      ProblemFilters.exclude[IncompatibleResultTypeProblem]("akka.cluster.ClusterCoreSupervisor.coreDaemon")
+      ProblemFilters.exclude[IncompatibleResultTypeProblem]("akka.cluster.ClusterCoreSupervisor.coreDaemon"),
+
+      // protofbuf embedding #13783
+      FilterAnyProblemStartingWith("akka.remote.WireFormats"),
+      FilterAnyProblemStartingWith("akka.remote.ContainerFormats"),
+      FilterAnyProblemStartingWith("akka.remote.serialization.DaemonMsgCreateSerializer"),
+      FilterAnyProblemStartingWith("akka.remote.testconductor.TestConductorProtocol"),
+      FilterAnyProblemStartingWith("akka.cluster.protobuf.msg.ClusterMessages"),
+      FilterAnyProblemStartingWith("akka.cluster.protobuf.ClusterMessageSerializer")
 
      )
   }