What are the potential pitfalls of using json_encode in PHP for encoding special characters like umlauts?

When using json_encode in PHP to encode special characters like umlauts, the potential pitfall is that by default, json_encode will escape these characters using Unicode escape sequences (\uXXXX). This can make the JSON output harder to read and process. To solve this issue, you can use the JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE option when calling json_encode to prevent the escaping of Unicode characters.

$data = ['text' => 'Möglichkeiten'];
$json = json_encode($data, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE);
echo $json;