Airplay 2/home kit

[breton]

Will exisiting soundtouch products be updated to be compatible with apple's new airplay 2 and home kit functionality?

[edit0r88]

God I hope so, not including airplay support on soundtouch was the biggest slap in the face ive experienced as a consumer in a long time...it used to work, i cant believe they removed it.

[Angryofm]

It was removed during the dark ages when Apple and Bose had a huge fall-out and Bose decided to not pay Apple any more royalties for Airplay.

So they went from Airplay (which never worked well anyway) to the more open Bluetooth function/feature which will work with just about any phone/tablet/pc and also has no silly restrictions like Apple Airloay only streaming to one speaker at at time (can't group a set of ST's when using Airplay) etc etc...

Yes it would be nice (like Cambridge Audio) to have both Airplay and Blutetooth - maybe one day when Bose decides to make good with Apple?

[wielkizderzacz]

Well, during Apple's keynote yesterday Bose was listed as one of the external partners supporting Airplay2, so I guess it is coming in one form or another. I would actually bet on it.

[magic100]

Move away from horrible compressed Bluetooth audio and support Airplay 2 which is not compressed audio. What is the point in spending so much on Bose system and then using rubbish Bluetooth audio. Right now wireless audio using wifi is second best after direct physical connection. 

[rickatk]

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@breton wrote:

Will exisiting soundtouch products be updated to be compatible with apple's new airplay 2 and home kit functionality?

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According to posts on FaceBook (Bose), Twitter (@Bose), Apple Insider and iMore

" over the air " in other words, firmware updates, will be made available to current SoundTouch products. 

What remains to be seen is the degree of functionality these updates will provide:

1. Apple Music integration over SoundTouch or just over Airplay

2. Multiple speaker addressing?

3. Siri commands?

4. Home Kit features?

[Mike_A_Bose · Accepted solution]

Hi breton, We were and are very excited to be included in the Airplay 2 announcement. We know that Airplay is something the forum is passionate about, and obviously Apple Music. 

Beyond what has been announced so far at the Apple WWDC, other details of exactly what features Airplay2 will enable and the timing of those are still forthcoming from Apple.  We are learning details almost at the same time as you are. As Apple shares more with us, we will share more with you.  From what we can see so far, AirPlay 2 will likely be made available in SoundTouch via a simple software update. It appears that most of Bose’s line of Wi-Fi systems will be able to utilize this update when it is ready. Beyond what was mentioned at WWDC, we don't yet have further details of how Homekit or Siri will work over Airplay 2. But we are excited to be on the cusp of all of the power Airplay 2 looks to deliver to the SoundTouch ecosystem.