  Symmetry algebras deriving from towers of soft theorems can be deformed by a
short list of higher-dimension Wilsonian corrections to the effective action.
We study the simplest of these deformations in gauge theory arising from a
massless complex scalar coupled to $F^2$. The soft gauge symmetry
'$s$-algebra', compactly realized as a higher-spin current algebra acting on
the celestial sphere, is deformed and enlarged to an associative algebra
containing soft scalar generators. This deformed soft algebra is found to be
non-abelian even in abelian gauge theory. A two-parameter family of central
extensions of the $s$-subalgebra are generated by shifting and decoupling the
scalar generators. It is shown that these central extensions can also be
generated by expanding around a certain non-trivial but Lorentz invariant
shockwave type background for the scalar field.
