Bose SoundTouch speakers were introduced in 2013, offering the ability to connect to online streaming services and play back audio on multiple speakers simultaneously using the accompanying mobile app. Now these features are about to be removed, including the mobile app, as Bose is set to discontinue support on February 18, 2026. From that point onwards, you can only use them via Bluetooth or physical connectors that may be present, like an audio jack or HDMI port. This includes fancy home theater system hardware like the above SoundTouch 520.
That is the official line, at least. We have seen the SoundTouch on Hackaday previously, when it was discovered how to gain root shell access to the Linux OS that powers the original SoundTouch system with Telnet access on port 17,000 to pass the listening service the remote_services on command before connecting with Telnet as usual, with root and no password. A quick glance at the comments to that post suggests that this is still a valid approach for at least certain SoundTouch devices.
The fallout from this announcement appears to be twofold: most of all that ‘smart’ features like WiFi-based streaming can be dropped at any time. But it also makes us realize that hardware hackers like us will never run out of new and suddenly obsolete hardware that need our rescue.
Another one bites the dust.
Really a shame how much the MBAs have ruined Bose.
I have to agree by principle but come on – 13 years runtime!
That is quite decent IMO.
Actually, is there a ranking of which such (smart home) cloud based hardware+service ran the longest?
At least they didn’t completely brick them.
True… smart switch graveyard ⚰️ comes to mind
Why should the connection between hardware and a 3rd party (e.g. Spotify) be killed? This is bullshit.
Because encryption and security certificates have an expiration date in case someone tries to brute-force them.
For example, the certificate for this webpage expires on Tue, 18 Nov 2025 20:47:38 GMT. The higher level certificate expires on Fri, 12 Mar 2027 23:59:59 GMT, and the root certificate expires on Mon, 04 Jun 2035 11:04:38 GMT. When you connect to the server, you’re using one of those certificates to check that the server is who it claims to be and not some impostor or hacker in the middle.
If you build a device that doesn’t get continuous firmware updates, and you need it to access online services securely, the best you can do is about 10-20 years before it goes out of date and you’d have to upgrade the firmware. If the device is well out of production by then, there’s no incentive for the manufacturer to do that, and demanding them to support EOL products would be unreasonable in general.
The ability to update your own certificates in a device using an open-source operating system on a device that could easily last 50 years is fairly reasonable though.
Yes, they could do that and the other thing, when Spotify inevitably changes its API which requires you to re-write that part of the firmware.
They could give you the tools, the development environment and the source code so you could maintain the hardware indefinitely, but does it pay them one more cent? It would instead create competition against their own products both through the second hand market, and through people reverse-engineering and copying the product with the help of said tools.
Because the connection doesn’t go directly from the speaker to that 3rd party. Spotify isn’t terribly interested in maintaining an API for random consumer devices, and even if they DID you’d then be relying on spotify for ongoing support. They’re even less likely to care than bose are if your smart speaker stops working.
I’m still rocking a set of 901 Series 3s.
901s are the only Bose product worth owning.
With a sub and some front firing presence speakers next to the screen they’re decent.
Out of the way hanging from ceiling.
Equalizer is retired, replaced by pink noise and microphone feature of amp.
Made 1970ish.
Not blown, but did need new edge foam 10+ years ago.
I got them cheap from a classical music listener.
Should have taken the double Denons too.
Was kid, didn’t know what I was looking at.
My ST is only 2 years old and the app is required for any sound adjustments. The is BS and I’m done with Bose.
True, 13 years is indeed a long runtime — but the issue isn’t really how long it lasted. Bose never stated anywhere that the product would have a “finite” lifespan. If they had been upfront about that from the start, many of us might have chosen other products or even gone for DIY solutions (like a Raspberry Pi setup) instead.
There’s not much anyone can do about the decay of digital services. Any connected smart device becomes locked in time and obsolete in a few years. Even if the back-end services were kept running, they would eventually expire and have to update their security certificates and encryption methods, etc. while the devices “in the field” would not.
What you’re asking there is for a consumer device that you buy once, and then expect the company to keep producing firmware updates and support it indefinitely. Nobody’s going to offer you that deal.
That’s why buying smart devices is not smart. They’re disposable products by nature. What you actually want is just an amplifier and a set of speakers, and then a mini-PC for all the smart features.
Good points. I’m still rocking a 40 yr old Technics stereo receiver in my home office; the only “updates” it has required are: replacing the failed dial incandescant bulbs with violet LEDs, and contact cleaner on some crackly switches.
“Buying smart devices is not smart” Amen… That I totally agree with. Never bought into the hype. Never will. Keep it local and protocols open. The network and devices are on your terms, not some cloud based entity….
Another one bites the dust.
Really a shame how much the MBAs have ruined Bose.
I stay away for anything requiring network connection to work.
Unfortunately, if today m$ dies, all the computers with fenetre os will die since it keeps reporting to its home base, for the system and each program made by the said company.
If you wanna test it, unplug the external connection of your router and enjoy the slowness of the system and how much you have to wait until one speeadsheet program starts.
My experience differs somewhat. I’m actually running several machines that had an uplink to the Internet for exactly one time: during activation after installing.
They are running (besides other stuff) a full MS Office suite and they are doing it far from slow. No lag at startup.
Just my two cents.
Same experience here, I don’t use windows much, but it always feel faster without the net….
It has been tested that the taskbar is loading ads, slowly. Maybe turn off all the ads and stuff?
Yeah yeah, software with regular updates (and subscription based licensing) polls for a remote server on startup.
There’s plenty of legitimate things to rag on MS for, but Windows works fine without an open pipe to the Internet. You know they use it on critical systems on warships, right?
Just put M$ behind you and don’t look back. Pretty simple actually.
Furious, remotely ruining a perfectly good product and removing capabilities feels like robbery. This should be illegal or they should pay us cash for the forced downgrade.
I discount on products from a company I will never buy from again is just an insult.
A large amount of it seems to still continue functioning, you are just losing the internet connected elements, and apparently multiroom playback, which shouldn’t need to be connected to an internet service just network connected but I guess it is part of how the speakers all sync to each other and get controlled in the original configuration.
So in this case while I’d be very annoyed at an early and unexpected termination if I had bought one recently – really should be announced with a longer lead time and a price reduction on the products yet to be sold so everyone knows you are really buying a bluetooth/hmdi speaker with a short term bonus in the first instance.
I do agree I’d never buy a product like this, as I have the skills to roll my own with the feature set I actually need and nothing else, but for the normie that can’t DIY a decade or more of function without a subscription fee…. This isn’t the what Sonus IIRC did bricking old devices on you entirely, simply a removal of features that will have an ongoing cost to BOSE to provide after a long period of time.
That’s not a good excuse. Taking away functionality that is not cloud dependant because you only ever wrote your data stealing app to work with a cloud login is still theft.
Bose should have a buyback program for SoundTouch units. The whole reason I purchased them was for multiro playback and now that’s kaput.
Obviously any obstacle is enough when you don’t care; but I’d be curious if there is some specific thing they’ve run into(deeply entangled dependency got deprecated; or flash is filling up on the most cost-reduced control board they shipped or the like) that dictated the kill date.
Their announcement is sort of a generic “introduced 2013; but technology marches on”; but (in broad strokes) technology really hasn’t marched all that far on since 2013. Some older wifi radios that wouldn’t be software upgradeable, sure; and probably some embedded Linux whose security is only acceptable if your attack surface analysis is confined to whatever little proprietary service listener Bose is using; but 2013 would have had both TLS 1.2 and WPA2 as common and accepted; and in terms of design patterns and preferences that’s far closer to the present than the past(ie. probably a bunch of REST HTTP APIs; not some godforsaken CORBA hell).
Obviously it could just be indifference; but anyone know if there is some specific library deprecation or something that would have really hardened their timeline?
I’ll never buy Bose again, based on the two Bose devices I have. QC35, impossible to switch off the automatic mic gain. Bluetooth speaker with non adjustable EQ that has bass set to 10. What a total utter joke.
Would love to see an openWRT or postmarketOS style project for smart speakers. They’re much simpler hardware, with audio output chips and maybe some GPIOs instead of a ton of complicated sensors, a battery controller, a screen, and a cell modem.
Oh ffs. Stop creating problems. As long as your head or amp has connectivity or gasp you actually connect it to another device with those stupid streaming crapps, then you are set until those companies too go the way of the vaporbird. You remember when people used to just have their own music collections and and podcasts and could just hit shuffle? Me neither. Long live the aux in!
You can listen to your own music collections and podcasts on these Bose devices… until next February. They’re not just removing “apps” they’re removing the ability to control the device because they can’t be bothered to allow any kind of local access.
I have 8 different devices 10s, 20’s, 2 SoundLinks and even 2 S1 Pros (S1 are only partially affected) used all day long. If I were to purchased from Bose it will not be wifi controlled device again if I even purrchase from Bose again. After this experience I will dig out my old receiver, dust off my towers and plug my old MP3 player in for all the tracks I converted from CD to digital.