Find out what music is playing near you
To learn more about the music you hear around you, you can have your Pixel phone automatically identify a song.
- With the Now Playing feature, you can get info about songs that play nearby. You can also get a list of songs you’ve played and share, search, or listen to them.
- You can find notifications whether your phone is locked or not.
Learn how Now Playing works
When music plays nearby, your phone uses its on-device library to identify the song privately. If you’ve shared usage and diagnostics with Google, Now Playing collects some info like percentage of times it correctly recognizes music. Learn how to update your usage and diagnostic settings.
In Pixel 4 and later phones, Now Playing improves with the use of federated analytics, a technology that preserves privacy. This helps the feature recognize what plays more often. When you listen to songs, Google only finds the most popular songs by region. Learn more about federated technology.
Tip: If you turn on "Show search button on lock screen," each time you tap to search, Google gets a short, digital audio fingerprint to identify what's playing.
If you've shared usage and diagnostics with Google, counts of recognized songs are shared with Google. You can adjust this setting at any time to determine what information is shared. Learn how to update your usage and diagnostic settings.
Get the Now Playing app
Important: After you download the Now Playing app, you may have to wait for up to 24 hours to start using the app.- On your phone, open the Play Store app 👁 Google Play
. - Search for
Now Playing. - When you find the Now Playing app by Google, tap the app 👁 and then
Install.
Start a song search with Now Playing
When you turn on Now Playing, info about the current song displays on your device’s lock screen. To get more details about the song, tap the name of the song or tap it again to open the Now Playing app.
To search for a song:
- In the Now Playing app, tap Now Playing 👁 Image
. - In Quick Settings, tap Now Playing 👁 Image
. - Start a search in the widget.
- Tap the Now Playing shortcut on your lock screen. Learn how to customize the lock screen on your Pixel phone.
Connect Now Playing to a streaming service
- In the Now Playing app, tap Settings 👁 Image
. - Tap Connected music service.
- Select a music service.
- If you don’t find your preferred music service, it may not be available yet.
- To log in, follow the on-screen instructions.
Find recently heard songs with Now Playing
- In the Now Playing app, tap History 👁 Image
.- You get a list of songs that Now Playing has recently identified.
- To favorite, remove, or share songs, swipe left on the song or tap More 👁 Image
.- You can also:
- Open the song in a connected streaming service.
- Search for songs in History.
- Type in the search bar.
- Add filters like date and time.
- You can also:
Favorite a song
You can add a song that’s playing nearby to your Now Playing favorites list.
- To add as a favorite, tap Add to Favorites 👁 Image
on the song currently playing. - To review your favorite songs, in the Now Playing app, tap Favorites 👁 red heart icon
.
Tip: To remove a song from the favorites list, tap More 👁 Image
👁 and then
Remove from Favorites 👁 Image
.
Share a song
You can share a song from the Now Playing app home screen, Favorites, or History.
- Tap a song you want to share.
- Tap More 👁 Image
👁 and then
Share 👁 Image
. - Select the audience to share the song with.
Change Now Playing Settings
Enable or disable Now Playing app
- In the Now Playing app, tap Settings 👁 Image
. - Choose Enable Now Playing or Disable Now Playing.
Change connected streaming service
- In the Now Playing app, tap Settings 👁 Image
👁 and then
Connected music service. - Select your preferred streaming app.
- To log in, follow the on-screen instructions.
Understand Now Playing data usage
Now Playing works better when you turn on all permissions to enable enhanced features like album art, manual song search, and more.
What’s sent
- The app collects and sends a short digital audio fingerprint of the song to Google.
- It doesn’t send raw audio or background conversations to Google.
When it’s sent
- When Now Playing doesn’t recognize a song from the database on your phone, it may perform a cloud search to improve results.
- When Now Playing automatically identifies a song, it may request additional song details from the cloud.
How it’s processed
- To securely search the cloud database for a match, the app sends the digital fingerprint to Google. This allows Now Playing to search millions of additional songs and gather other things like album artwork.
- To protect your anonymity, Now Playing uses privacy-preserving analytics.
Storage & sharing
- The audio fingerprints sent to Google are only used to recognize the music. No data is stored on the server or shared with other Google or third-party services.