Can Bose Sleepbuds Play Music? | There Is Still Hope

Bose Sleepbuds can only load songs from the official Bose Sound Library inside their app. They do not have the capability to stream music or any type of podcast.

I recently got to sleep with the Bose Sleepbuds that one of my friends has. I like listening to my own playlist before going to sleep so things didn’t go exactly as planned.

However, there is still hope for those who want to sort of combine the power of Bose Sleepbuds with their favorite tunes. You’ll just have to use a different brand!

Key Takeaways

My personal recommendation would be to purchase the Jabra Elite 7 over the Bose Sleepbuds since they are great for side sleeping and you can add your own music.
There was a hack available in 2019 for Sleepbuds 1, where you could add your own music by downloading and unpacking the app, creating your own audio file, and altering the .json file.
Bose has changed their software with the release of Sleepbuds 2 and it is no longer possible to add custom tracks even with the hack.
The restriction on frequencies up to 4kHz means that listening to music on Sleepbuds is not recommended anyway due to the poor sound quality.

Table of Contents

What sounds do Bose Sleepbuds make?

Three different sound types can be played by Bose Sleepbuds:

Noise masking: Used to block any background noise including street traffic, snoring, conversations, etc… I find these to be rather annoying to sleep with.
Tranquilities: Calming noises that are intended to promote calm and accelerate the process of going to sleep.
Nature scapes: Calming sounds from nature that will put you in a cozy mood for sleep. These are similar to living in the woods.

Can I add custom music to Bose Sleepbuds?

In my opinion, the Bose Library is terrible. I am not sure how anyone can sleep with these. No wonder people are looking for ways to listen to their own playlists.

After the release of the Sleepbuds 2, Bose has tweaked their software so that you can no longer hack it and add your own custom tracks.

Back in 2019, there was a way to sort of “hack” the app that Sleepbuds 1 used and add your music. It basically went like this:

You downloaded and unpacked the app’s .apk file from the Play Store.
The app had a .json file that it used to access Bose’s servers in order to load the sounds from their library.
This .json file contained a list of all the sounds in the library, along with background pictures for the app to show, a WAV audio preview, and a thumbnail image.
Then, you would create your own audio file, package it in the appropriate format, include some graphics, upload it to a web server, and alter the.json file to integrate it.
For the audio to be transferred to the Sleepbuds, you would then need to repack, resign, and load the .apk into your phone.

The fact that you cannot add your own music is not just because Bose wants to promote their own software.

Only frequencies up to 4kHz can be reproduced by the Sleepbuds’ chipset. This is fine for background sounds but it’s not enough for listening to regular songs.

Final Thoughts

Even if you could play music on your Bose Sleepbuds, it wouldn’t be worth your time because of the sound quality restriction that the 4kHz frequencies set.

Imagine that a typical song has frequencies of up to about 13kHz, so listening to music on Sleepbuds would sound like garbage anyway.