Google may soon be paying more attention to one of the Pixel phones’ best features. The company is working on a dedicated app for Now Playing, the built-in tool that automatically identifies songs playing nearby.
This Shazam-like feature displays the song title and artist right on the lock screen and saves a history of songs your phone has recognized. The biggest advantage has always been that it runs on the device, meaning songs are identified locally without the need to send audio clips to the cloud.
For Pixel users, Now Playing currently runs as a background service within Android System Intelligence. It is the same system software that runs tools like Live Caption and Smart Text Selection.
A closer look at Google’s plans for Now Playing
Recent code changes suggest that Google is working on turning Now Playing into its own standalone app. 9to5Google discovered strings that explicitly reference the prompt “Download the new Now Playing app” and redirect users to the Play Store.
This means that settings, song history and related controls are stored in a dedicated application. A brand new icon has also been spotted in test builds, which is another indication that this isn’t just a minor UI change.
Whether the new Now Playing app will remain exclusive to Pixel phones or be available on other Android devices is an open question for now. Google hasn’t officially confirmed anything yet; However, speculation points to a possible release alongside an upcoming Pixel feature drop in March.
Still, turning Now Playing into a dedicated app could make it easier for Google to update it more frequently, improve the design, and introduce improvements without having to wait for a full system software update.
Meanwhile, Google has also resumed rolling out the Android 17 beta to Pixel phones after the update was briefly paused due to a bug, and is reopening access to users who were temporarily blocked from installing it.
