An unofficial, open-source desktop app for Sony headphones — Noise Cancelling, Ambient Sound, EQ, DSEE and battery, without the phone.

Features · Download · How it works · Contributing · Credits

  

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Why

Sony locks headphone settings behind their mobile-only Sound Connect app. If you live on a laptop, you're stuck. SonyBridge talks to the headphones directly over Bluetooth RFCOMM using Sony's reverse-engineered binary protocol — no phone required.

The original SonyHeadphonesClient only spoke Sony's first-generation protocol, so newer headsets (WH-CH720N, XM4/XM5, WF-series, LinkBuds…) just timed out on connect. SonyBridge adds full second-generation ("v2") protocol support, a native SwiftUI app on macOS, and a matching modern UI on Windows/Linux.

✨ Features

• 🎚️ Ambient Sound Control — Noise Cancelling · Ambient Sound (0–20 levels) · Off
• 🗣️ Focus on Voice passthrough
• 🎛️ Equalizer — presets and a full Manual mode with 5 bands + Clear Bass
• ✨ DSEE — Sony's audio upscaling for compressed sources
• 🔋 Battery level — live percentage, including per-earbud + case for TWS models
• 🎧 Codec & firmware readout
• 🧩 Capability-gated extras — Auto Power-Off · Speak-to-Chat · Adaptive Volume (only shown when your device supports them)
• 🖼️ Device hero image — your headphones' official Sony product render
• 🔄 Live button sync — changes made on the headset reflect in the app
• 🔌 Auto-connect to your already-paired Sony headset
• 🧬 Dual-protocol — auto-detects and speaks either protocol generation
• 🌑 Modern UI — dark, minimal, shaped after Sony's own app (SwiftUI on macOS, Dear ImGui on Windows/Linux)

📥 Download

Platform	Get it	Notes
macOS	brew tap AmitRajput-Dev/tap && brew install --cask sonybridge or Download .app	macOS 11+ · Apple Silicon & Intel
Windows	Download Beta	🧪 Beta — testers wanted
Linux	Build from source	GLFW/OpenGL build

💡 After launching, connect your headphones in your OS Bluetooth settings first, then open SonyBridge and hit Connect. Keep audio playing — Sony headsets drop the control link when idle to save power.

macOS install notes (Gatekeeper)

The app is ad-hoc signed (not notarized — no paid Apple Developer account). The Homebrew cask clears the quarantine flag for you. For a direct download, allow it once:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/SonyBridge.app

…or right-click the app → Open → Open. Homebrew also asks you to trust the third-party tap the first time (brew trust AmitRajput-Dev/tap).

🎧 Supported headphones

Status	Devices
✅ Verified	WH-CH720N, Sony ULT WEAR (WH-ULT900N)
🟢 Expected (v2, over-ear — NC/Ambient/battery/EQ)	WH-1000XM5, WH-1000XM6, WH-XB910N, WH-CH520
🟡 v2 earbuds (controls work; battery format differs)	WF-1000XM4, WF-1000XM5, WF-C700N, LinkBuds S
🔵 Legacy (v1 protocol — NC/Ambient only)	WH-1000XM4, WH-1000XM3, WH-1000XM2, WH-XB900N, MDR-XB950BT

Only the WH-CH720N is fully hardware-verified. Others share the same protocol family, so the basics should work — per-model quirks are untested. Reports and PRs for other devices are very welcome.

🚀 Build from source

macOS (native SwiftUI app)

Requires Xcode 14+.

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/AmitRajput-Dev/SonyBridge.git
open SonyBridge/Client/macos/SonyHeadphonesClient.xcodeproj

Then ⌘R.

Windows / Linux (Dear ImGui UI)

Windows (CMake + MSVC, from a Developer Command Prompt):

cd Client && mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. && cmake --build . --config Release

Linux (sudo apt install libbluetooth-dev libglfw3-dev libdbus-1-dev):

cd Client && mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. && cmake --build .

Keep the built binary next to its resources/ folder (device hero images load from resources/devices/).

🔬 How it works

Sony headphones expose a vendor RFCOMM/SPP service. Commands are framed as:

<START 0x3e> ESCAPE( <TYPE> <SEQ> <4-byte BE length> <PAYLOAD> <checksum> ) <END 0x3c>

Two protocol generations exist, distinguished by their SDP service UUID:

• v1 — 96CC203E-… — WH-1000XM3 and older
• v2 — 956C7B26-… — WH-CH720N, Sony ULT WEAR, XM4/XM5, WF-series, LinkBuds…

SonyBridge tries v1 first, falls back to v2, and remembers which succeeded. The v2 path adds the mandatory init handshake and per-frame host-ACK the newer devices require, plus battery, EQ and DSEE inquiry commands. Protocol byte layouts were cross-referenced against GadgetBridge's Sony implementation.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are very welcome — especially device reports and testing on real hardware.

• 🐛 Found a bug / have a device to report? Open an issue with your model and what happened.
• 🧪 Want to test? Grab a release and tell us how it behaves on your headset (a screenshot helps a lot).
• 🔧 Code? Fork, branch, and open a PR against main. CI builds macOS, Windows and Linux on every PR.

🙏 Credits

SonyBridge builds directly on the work of:

• SonyHeadphonesClient by Plutoberth, Mr-M33533K5 & contributors — the original cross-platform client and protocol foundation
• semvis123 — the original macOS port
• GadgetBridge — reverse-engineered v2 protocol reference

Community contributors & testers:

• @CrisProCrack — WH-1000XM4 (v1) connect fix
• @Sebsdnl — Linux/Wayland crash fix & ULT WEAR support
• u/More_Way_6784, @joelslaby — WH-1000XM4 hardware testing

❤️ Support

If SonyBridge is useful to you, consider supporting it — it keeps the reverse-engineering going:

• 🌍 GitHub Sponsors — worldwide (cards, one-off or monthly)
• 🇮🇳 Razorpay / UPI — for supporters in India

Starring the repo helps too. ⭐

⚠️ Disclaimer

This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Sony. It talks to your headphones using a reverse-engineered protocol, for interoperability. Use at your own risk.

📄 License

MIT — original copyright retained; see Credits.