Now Playing is a Pixel feature that identifies songs playing nearby and shows the title and artist on the lock screen. It works quietly in the background using an on-device song database.
These steps apply to most Google Pixel phones from Pixel 2 onward.
Does This Affect You?
Use this if your Pixel shows song names even when no music app is open, or if you want to turn that feature on, off, or view its history.
Turn Now Playing On or Off
- Open Settings.
- Tap Sound and vibration.
- Tap Now Playing. If you cannot find it, search Settings for Now Playing.
- Turn automatic song identification on or off.
- Enable the lock-screen display option if you want song names shown while locked.
View Now Playing History
- Open Settings > Sound and vibration > Now Playing.
- Tap Now Playing history.
- Scroll through songs with detection times.
- Tap a song to search it, add it in a music app, or get more information where available.
Privacy and Battery Notes
Recognition Happens on the Phone
Now Playing compares nearby audio against a local song database and discards the snippet. It does not need to upload audio for the standard offline recognition feature.
It Can Miss Songs
Very new, obscure, live, or noisy tracks may not match the offline database. The history may show unidentified music instead.
Battery Use Is Low
Google designed Now Playing to run efficiently with a small on-device model, so battery impact is usually minor.
Sources
- Google Support: Identify songs with Now Playing
- Google AI Blog: On-device song recognition with Now Playing
- Google Store: Pixel lock screen features