alt Hacker NewsBose has released API docs and opened the API for its EoL SoundTouch speakers
Comments
This is how "end of support" should be handled. Instead of turning devices into e-waste, open-source them and let the community extend their life. Kudos to Bose for setting a good example.
More companies should follow this approach - especially as right-to-repair becomes a bigger issue.
This is not open sourcing any actual software or hardware it is “open-sourcing the API documentation for its SoundTouch smart speakers”. You might be able to point them at an alternative back-end¹ if you want the cloud features, but that will need to be written from scratch rather than being forked from code provided by Sonos.
> When cloud support ends, an update to the SoundTouch app will add local controls to retain as much functionality as possible without cloud services
This is a far bigger move than releasing API information, IMO bigger than if they had actually open sourced the software & hardware, from the point of view of most end users - they can keep using the local features without needing anyone else to maintain a version.
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[1] TFA doesn't state that this will be possible, but opening the API makes no sense if it isn't.
They're not really "open-sourcing" anything in the sense that I would think about it. As far as I can tell they're doing two things:
* Removing cloud-server dependency from the app.
* Publishing API documentation for the speaker.
I actually think this is worth noting not so much in a "well aktshully it's not open source!" kind of way, but as a good lesson for other manufacturers - because this is meaningfully good without needing to do any of the things manufacturers hate:
* They didn't have to publish any Super Secret First or Third Party Proprietary IP.
* They didn't have to release any signing keys or firmware tools.
* They get to remove essentially all maintenance costs and relegate everything to a "community."
But yet people are happy! Manufacturers should take note that they don't have to do much to make customers much happier with their products at end of life.
This might sound crazy to some people, but I think this is much better than ongoing support. Removal of reliance on cloud alone is a massive feature that gets me interested in buying one of these (I don't currently own one). And the fact it has an API I can hit myself? Awesome!!!
Good for them. Makes me more likely to consider buying a Bose in future, not just because I know it won't be bricked, but also for the environmental impact of this. Kudos.
Hopefully, someone from Bose sees these comments. There is a serious segment of the pro and prosumer audio market that values open-source, interoperability, long service life, and is willing to pay a bit more for it.
I hope Bose continues to do this for future products and is rewarded financially for it.
Hey Sonos, this is how you handle old products, and this is why most of us wont touch your hardware ever again.
I recently posted a comment [0] critical of Bose for needing an app, and it's nice to see that Bose decided to take a much better approach to end-of-life.
This should be standard practice. Some companies have terrible policies around bricking their products.
When my kid was born, I bought a brand-new Snoo. After six months, I wanted to sell it since we no longer needed it. That's when I discovered stories of people whose used Snoos had been bricked by the company. For such an expensive product, that is such a waste. If I'd known about this beforehand, I never would have made the purchase in the first place.
Thanks Bose for opencycling Bose hardware into OSS audio ecosystems that could support multiple vendors.
https://github.com/captivus/bose-soundtouch
This library provides a clean, Pythonic interface to control SoundTouch speakers over your local network, ensuring your speakers remain fully functional even after cloud services end.
Lyrion Music Server (LMS) is a streaming audio server supported by the LMS community and formerly supported by Logitech, developed in particular to support their Squeezebox [discontinued in 2012] range of digital audio receivers.. [LMS] also works with networked music players, such as the Roku SoundBridge M1001, Chumby, O2 Joggler, RPi and the SqueezeAMP open source hardware player.Providing API specs is not open-sourcing them. Where's the source code?
As others have said already, they are just un-obscuring the server API and restoring local control to your speakers when they discontinue the service. There is nothing noble about this, it is almost least they could do. I walked away from a large investment in Sonos gear over forcing legacy equipment into the cloud, this sort of thing is why.
From https://www.bose.com/soundtouch-end-of-life:
> Open-source options for the community
> We’re making our technical specifications available so that independent developers can create their own SoundTouch-compatible tools and features. The documentation is available here: SoundTouch API Documentation (https://assets.bosecreative.com/m/496577402d128874/original/...).
AFAIK, the soundtouch web API was already accessible via some bose developer portal. It doesn't seem like they are open sourcing anything. This API just allows you to make basic requests to do things like change volume on the speaker.
To support the smart features of the SoundTouch speakers, we would the soundtouch user management service. Speakers connect to this very frequently and its where refresh tokens for music services and presets are stored. The speaker firmware itself has lots of source code, including the bit to handle music services and playback. There is an abstraction layer for music service APIs. There is a process on the speaker that reaches out to a music service registry, which is an index of bose music service adapters. Each of these adapters essentially proxies a music service like tunein, spotify, and even the "stream a custom station" feature.
If bose open-sourced the speaker firmware, we could make a firmware build which talks to a 3rd party user management service, and reaches out to a 3rd party music service registry. Then we could add and maintain music service playback for the community. But there is no open sourcing of any actual code here and this soundtouch web api cannot change the URLs on the existing firmware of the user management service or the music service registry.
So to my eye this story seems misleading and just some PR nonsense. It's a little frustrating reading all of the "great job, Bose!" comments here like anything was actually done... Disclaimer: I used to work at Bose.
Very nice!
One time I got a free Harman Kardon bluetooth speaker from Microsoft (the Invoke from 2017). They were $100* but went on sale for $50 and I snagged one.
Then Microsoft discontinued Cortana for it, but they didn't kill the speaker. They released firmware that turned it into a perfectly good bluetooth speaker (which I still use today.) And they sent me a $50 gift card* to buy something else from Microsoft. Good will! I was a big fan of Microsoft hardware. Shame about the software...
* Apparently $200 initially but they had some steep sales because Cortana as a voice assistant wasn't reviewing well. Reviews are a bit negative on the sound quality. Probably true enough at $200, but for $0-50, I think it's actually really good sound quality.
While laudable, the release of the documentation is completely useless. The protocol is rather simple and was completely reverse engineered already many years ago. In fact it’s already integrated into several open-source home management tools e.g. Home Assistant.
The rest api was taken apart years ago for my old Sonos. They had originally promised to add AirPlay support later said, “Just kidding. Why don’t you brick it instead.” At that point I was finished with closed ecosystems for audio. At least someone made an AirPlay agent that lives on the home server. That speaker has survived many years too.
I'm in the market for speakers and Bose definitely has rose higher on my list
I actually found a nice SoundTouch 20 discarded on the curb, a couple months ago.
I assumed it was probably discarded due to the frequent situation here, of student who is moving away, and who doesn't want the hassle or expense of moving things that don't fit in their luggage.
Now I wonder whether it was discarded because the owner heard it was being bricked, so not worth moving with them.
(Don't worry, I'm a curb Jawa master. I carried it home, realized it was IoT that required an icky closed app thing to use it, and so gave it to an MIT student. I just emailed them the URL of this good news. Possible bummer for the previous owner, though.)
The one thing I’d love to have is repairable Bose headphones. I’ve used different ones but Bose with proper EQ settings are extremely good. The comfort levels on those is exceptional. In my entire life I’ve never seen headphones this comfortable. But once the battery wears out getting it repaired seems to include soldering. Should’ve been easily swappable. Also their Bluetooth can be finicky. One more area that needs improvement.
This makes me more likely to buy Bose.
Why would I buy something that a vendor intends to kill off in an attempt to make me buy again?
Respect to Bose for taking a better stance on this. I still remember Sonos implementing "Recycle Mode" that they thankfully backtracked on.
Putting software in long lived components — screens, speakers, whatever — is shortsighted as the industrial short term and barely engineered mindset.
Maybe in an era where software can be carefully engineered to a point of actual completion it will make sense, but for now it’s mostly stupid.
Open sourcing potential ongoing support and tinkering is good, but it doesn’t get the core problem that it wad probably never the right thing to put the smarts in the speakers in the first place.
Unrelated to Bose's open hardware: The project Gadgetbridge has headsets and earplugs from various brands, but almost no Bose. https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/headphones/bose/ The community show interest, but still nothing. https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/issues?stat...
Interesting article - most products are treated as “delivered” the moment they ship. A project manager hands over, success is declared, and the organisation moves on. But physical products with embedded software don’t stop being systems just because the project ends — they keep accumulating risk, cost, and user impact right through to end-of-life.
What usually gets missed is that end-of-life is still part of the project, even if it sits years downstream. When software support is withdrawn without a transition path, the hardware doesn’t just lose features — it loses trust. That’s not a technical failure, it’s a lifecycle planning failure.
Open-sourcing at sunset is interesting because it’s one of the few mechanisms that acknowledges this gap. It doesn’t help most users directly, but it at least hands control back instead of silently bricking capability.
I’m curious whether we’ll start seeing project managers and product teams treat “exit conditions” as a first-class deliverable — with explicit decisions about data, firmware, APIs, and ownership once commercial support ends — rather than treating end-of-life as someone else’s problem.
Fun fact: Bose is 51% owned by MIT (non voting shares) https://news.mit.edu/2011/bose-gift
Why would anyone want a smart speaker, when every speaker acts as one when hooked to the sound output of a phone, wirelessly or wired?
I'll admit, I don't want or use 'smart' anything, and am currently trying to disable smart devices that were already present in my home from the previous owner.
The hardware on the soundtouch 10/20/30 series was always surprisingly over engineered with heavy magnets, decent power supplies, and good enclosures but let down by a sluggish app and flaky mDNS implementation.
With this, they just became the best value proposition on the used market. Flashing these with a minimal distro running snapclient (for multiroom audio) and shairport-sync (AirPlay 2) makes them infinitely better than they were on stock firmware. eBay prices are probably going to double by tomorrow morning.
Happy to see this happening. You know what would make me even happier? Having open source alternatives available to use as soon as I buy the device, not only after it's discontinued
The folks on /r/bose were complaining loudly about this. I'm glad that Bose heard them and is allowing SoundTouch app development to continue!
If the software gains traction in a public git repo this could be a good purchase for someone wanting a cost effective, great sounding, customisable, retro styled speaker.
love it, but I'm surprised after the experiences I had with Bose in the past
Oh cool! I got a set of SoundTouch speakers years ago because they supported simultaneous Bluetooth playback as well as synced cloud service playback. This was in 2018 so options were more limited then. Since it became clear Bose was shutting them down I've moved over to Wiims[1] for managing playback (the SoundTouch app was always kind of odd and hard to manage) - but allowing local control is really nice. Currently you need to hit a button to enable playing from AUX on the soundtouches - they won't stay on the "dumb speaker" mode unless music is playing. Hopefully after this I'll be able to set them up as permanent speakers driven by the wiims.
It's sad how surprised the author and all of us are. Has it really become the norm to create crap that you pay for, that just stops working one day and becomes e-waste? If that ever happens to me, that's a company I'm never giving money to again, ever.
Why are these devices connecting to the Internet at all? Aren't they supposed to be connected to phones and TVs via cable or bluetooth? I would never allow any "smart" anything device to speak to the Internet in the first place.
Just a separate post in case people found this helpful. Here are some APIs available so you can build your own apps:
- Python: https://github.com/captivus/bose-soundtouch - TypeScript: https://github.com/cssinate/bose-soundtouch
Nice. This reminds me of Logitech who open sourced LMS (Logitech Media Server) when they discontinued their multiroom product (known as Squeezebox before they bought it).
Still a fantastic multi-room setup to this day... I run a server as well as a client from a Raspberry Pi.
Reword a public announcement [1], slap on a misleading title, put it behind a cookie banner and paywall and boom - Journalism! "Bose is releasing documentation for EOL smart speaker HTTP API" would be more apt. Not even Bose is claiming that anything has been open-sourced in their statement. Titling the section "Open-source options for the community" is as close as they come to that.
Still, props to Bose for actively helping to keep their old devices usable.
After my last Sonos, I gave up on smart speakers. Recently I discovered Squeezelite-ESP32 / piCorePlayer and I'm not going back. I'm free to choose my own speakers (and people sell great 2nd hand dumb speakers for nothing!), I can stream, sync, etc - and they integrate great with Home Assistant. No more proprietary protocol for me, thank you...
On a related note, I'm eternally grateful for the conversion to open source of the Squeezebox platform (now known as Lyrion Music Server) and SageTV. I use both of these every day.
I got my first Bose headphone in 2008 or so. It was a treat for myself as a poor university student after a paycheque. I loved the headphone and one day it broke down after several years of heavy abuse. I called their customer service for repairs and how much it would cost. Rather than recommending me to just buy a new one, the customer support agent asked questions about the model, what the issue was, and offered a replacement.
I've loved their product and support ever since. Glad to see this happening as well. Kudos.
This is amazing, and I hope this sets a precedent for other companies. Stuff like this would definitely sway my buying decision, if I know when a product becomes EOL I can tinker with it.
Well done Bose! This puts you higher on the list for my next purchase.
I don't understand why so many comments here are negative. This is a nice move, and Bose should be thanked and encouraged to do similar moves again. It's a step in the right direction!
This is an amazing idea - whoever came up with it, should get a promotion. I'd not be surprised that if this continues, Bose could be what e.g.: ThinkPad became and will have a steady customer and fan base
The arguments in this thread about sound quality crack me up. Reminds me of when a famous mix engineer was in a best buy and the guy said 'These sound just like it did in the studio!' He said, no it doesn't. We used NS10s.
Really glad to hear this, I've been so close to throwing out my SoundTouch 20, which makes me sad because it looks great and sounds better than my Google Nest speaker (placement issue? hard to say).
Has anyone found or started related github repos?
I am not a big fan of Bose for personal reasons, but they get my respect for this action.
Direct link to the announcement (from the article):
https://www.bose.com/soundtouch-end-of-life
SoundTouch API Documentation (pdf) linked from the announcement:
https://assets.bosecreative.com/m/496577402d128874/original/...