There’s a lot to like about Google Pixel phones, but Now Playing is perhaps one of the best features on these devices. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Google is interested in extending this functionality to other Android phones any time soon. On the plus side, you probably have an app installed on your phone that can perform a similar function to Now Playing: Shazam.
Shazam has been around for as long as I can remember, and it’s my go-to app when I need to identify a song that I like. Normally, using Shazam requires you to open the app and tap a button to start the song recognition process, but you may not know that it also has an Auto Shazam feature that functions similarly to Now Playing, and it’s available on just about any Android phone.
What is Now Playing
If you own a Pixel smartphone, you’re likely familiar with Now Playing. It’s a built-in song recognition software that works in the background on your Pixel. Whenever there’s music playing nearby, the Pixel microphones will pick it up and identify it without you needing to do anything.
Latest Videos FromAndroid Central
The feature has been available for years, but it’s so subtle that it goes mostly unnoticed. However, if you glance at your lock screen while music is playing nearby, you may notice a song title pop up, which means Now Playing is working its magic.
The best part is that it works on-device, so you don’t have to worry about Now Playing sucking up your battery life or data. And when you need to figure out what that song was that was playing at the bar, you can easily access your library to find the list of songs your Pixel has identified.
Auto Shazam works similarly, in that it runs in the background to identify songs for you. However, since it’s a third-party app, it’s not as seamless as on a Pixel. It will show you songs playing, but it will clog up your notification panel a bit unless you do a little tweaking.
It’s also not an on-device solution, so it will utilize quite a bit of battery power and data. However, you can easily toggle the feature on and off, which is helpful for moments when you don’t need it sucking up battery and for times when you find yourself somewhere playing good music you might be interested in but don’t want to have to manually identify each song.
How to enable Auto Shazam
1. Open Shazam and tap Library.
2. Tap the Settings icon in the top-left corner.
3. Tap the Auto Shazam toggle.
Note: Alternatively, you can press and hold the Shazam button on the home screen to enable Auto Shazam.
4. A pop-up menu will appear asking if you want to end Auto Shazam after one song or if you want to leave it on continuously.
5. From your notification panel, you can see a persistent notification informing you that Auto Shazam is on. Tap Turn off if you no longer want to use it, or Change if you want to manage any settings.
Finally, you can also add an Auto Shazam tile to your Quick Settings menu, which lets you quickly toggle the feature on and off.
Other ways to easily trigger Shazam
Still, if Auto Shazam isn’t for you, or if you just want to quickly identify one song, Shazam makes it easy to do so without digging for the app. One of the main ways I use it is by adding the Shazam tile to the Quick Settings menu. Unlike the Auto Shazam tile, this one lets you identify just one song, and once you tap it, it runs in the background without opening the app.
In fact, it’s probably one of my favorite ways to identify songs whenever I hear something interesting, especially because it’s one of the few third-party tiles that works on the Motorola Razr’s cover screen Quick Settings. That means I don’t even have to open the phone for it to work.
(Image credit: Android Central)
The other option is to add a Shazam pop-up to your screen. This adds a floating Shazam button that you can move around and tap whenever you need it. To add this, go to the Shazam settings and enable Pop-up Shazam. You may need to grant the app permission to draw over other apps; once you do, the floating button will appear on your screen.
We need more Now Playing on more phones
I sorely wish Google would bring Now Playing to the Pixel, or at least that other Android OEMs would implement their own versions of the feature. What makes it superior to Shazam’s offering is that it works on-device and in the background, so you don’t really need to do anything or worry about it constantly burning through your battery.
Newer chips like the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 have gotten quite good at on-device tasks such as this; it’s kind of crazy that Google is seemingly the only company doing it (that I know of).
Still, Shazam is a great alternative if you don’t own a Pixel smartphone, and it’s one of those apps I always download first whenever I set up a new phone, becoming a staple for me when building up my music library.