How does the Bose app talk to the device? Wireshark can probably be used to analyze it. Writing a simple free software replacement for the bad app could be a fun project and the result will no doubt be much better than their proprietary software.
I have, at [1], though this is literally the first time I dabble in android apps, so quality is alpha at best. I use it frequently ant works for me though.
There's a lot of protocols you can run over Bluetooth.
The BT dump tool can be run on the bluetooth device (eg laptop, phone) and so get access to the negotiated crypto keys oe cleartext version of the comms.
Sure, it’s less than ideal, but come on. There are far worse apps and it’s required to update the firmware. At least on iOS you’re also prompted to install it when you connect to the headphones for the first time anyway, so I would imagine adoption is pretty high.
I don't mean "it's not a high tech native experience with dark mode". I mean the app works poorly, all the time, and gets in the way of actually using the headphones. For example: whenever my headphones are paired with both my phone and laptop (because the app allows for two devices to be paired at once??) I have to manually disable my laptop in the app to listen to phone audio, the "drag down to connect" interface rarely works properly, etc. It really is a very poor experience when compared to BT headphones that don't require an app to manage their state.