# Bose SoundTouch smart speakers

37 Hacker News commenters recommended Bose SoundTouch smart speakers and 18 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Praised for solid build and sound, and for Bose's open API docs and keeping old speakers usable after end-of-life. Critics say the app is sluggish and the docs are incomplete.

## Why people recommend it

- Responded to backlash with fixes (5 comments): "They received the backlash, they responded to it by properly addressing the criticism and doing the right thing. It should be praised." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46545145)) "They responded to it by properly addressing the criticism and doing the right thing. It should be praised." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46550077)) "Bose: does something bad. People: complain. Bose: undoes what they did and does something slightly better." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46551667))
- Graceful end-of-life support for old speakers (5 comments): "kudos to Bose for their relatively graceful hardware depreciation approach and releasing their API documentation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46544283)) "it's nice to see that Bose decided to take a much better approach to end-of-life" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46542068)) "I do applaud Bose for providing a graceful EoL to their product and consumers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46542508))
- Makes me more likely to buy (4 comments): "suddenly Bose is on the list of consumer products I will consider for my home" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46544444)) "Makes me more likely to consider buying a Bose in future" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46542096)) "This makes me more likely to buy Bose." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46542204))
- Good sound and build quality (2 comments): "over engineered with heavy magnets, decent power supplies, and good enclosures but let down by a sluggish app and flaky mDNS implementation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46542510)) "cost effective, great sounding, customisable, retro styled speaker" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46551013))

## What people warn about

- Sluggish, hard-to-manage app (2 comments): "over engineered with heavy magnets, decent power supplies, and good enclosures but let down by a sluggish app and flaky mDNS implementation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46542510)) "the SoundTouch app was always kind of odd and hard to manage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46543100))
- Incomplete or useless API docs (2 comments): "While laudable, the release of the documentation is completely useless." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46544354)) "They did not publish enough API docs to write an alternative backend." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46547110))
- Still depends on cloud (3 comments): "Annoying design choice by Bose, that the speaker even needs a server for the presets." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48073982)) "any new speaker you can buy from them will still be dependent of some cloud service" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46543701)) "they could have offered local control from launch and not had this issue" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46546826))
- Only the bare minimum (2 comments): "They really did the minimum, as in, anything less should have been illegal." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46542887)) "There is nothing noble about this, it is almost least they could do." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46543814))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [HomePod mini](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-homepod-mini.md): 15 recommend
- [Sonos speakers](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sonos.md): 14 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Bose+SoundTouch+30+wireless+smart+speaker&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://www.bose.com/home)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Bose SoundTouch smart speakers", https://hackerapproved.com/p/bose-smart-speakers/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).