Bose is yanking key features from its SoundTouch speakers
is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
Bose is discontinuing support for the cloud-based features available on its SoundTouch products on February 18th, 2026.
“After February 18, certain features — including access to integrated music services like Spotify and TuneIn, as well as multi-room playback — will no longer be available,” Bose says. That same day, the SoundTouch app will stop working, too, meaning you won’t be able to use it to control your speakers. “However, if your SoundTouch product supports Bluetooth, AUX, or HDMI, you’ll still be able to enjoy high-quality audio playback from connected devices.”
Specifically, here’s what Bose says will be affected:
Some functions such as Bluetooth and AUX on standalone SoundTouch speakers (like SoundTouch 10, 20 Series III, and 30 Series III) will most likely continue to work when connected to a local source, but we can’t guarantee long-term performance. For SoundTouch-enabled home theater products such as Lifestyle 650, SoundTouch 130, and SoundTouch 300 Soundbar, HDMI and optical inputs as well as Bluetooth should continue to work. Other features like SoundTouch streaming and app control, will no longer function.
The company launched its first SoundTouch products in 2013, but Bose says that “technology has evolved since then and we’re no longer able to sustain the development and support of the cloud infrastructure that powers this older generation of products.” The company had already partially started moving on from the SoundTouch line years ago, adding a notice to its website in 2020 that said it would be “discontinuing sales of some SoundTouch products.” At the time, Bose said it was committed to supporting “both the SoundTouch app and product software for the foreseeable future.”
With this cloud services shutdown, Bose will also stop offering security updates for SoundTouch products. And Bose isn’t planning to offer a replacement app or platform: “we do not plan to support SoundTouch products through any other app,” the company says.
Many users on the Bose subreddit are unhappy with the change, with a thread about the announcement getting more than 260 comments as of this writing. “I have literally spent many thousands on these products,” one user wrote. “What a slap in the face. They are basically doorstops now.”
Bose didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
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