Find out what music is playing near you

To learn more about the music that you hear around you, you can ask your Pixel phone to 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 that you’ve played and share, search or listen to them.
• You can find notifications whether your phone is locked or not.

Important:

• Some of these steps work only on Android 10 and up. Learn how to check your Android version.
• Some of these steps require you to touch the screen.

How does Now Playing work?

On all Pixel phones

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 the percentage of times that it correctly recognises music. Learn how to update your usage and diagnostic settings.

On Pixel 4 and later, including Fold, with federated analytics

In Pixel 4 and later phones, Now Playing improves with the use of federated analytics, a technology that preserves privacy. This helps the feature recognise 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.

Shared usage and diagnostics

If you have shared usage and diagnostics with Google, counts of recognised 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.

How do I use Now Playing to find songs that I heard recently?

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Sound and vibration Now Playing Now Playing history.
   • You get a list of songs that Now Playing has recently identified.
3. To share a song or listen to it in a music app, tap the song.
   • On Pixel 3 and later, including Fold, you can also choose multiple songs to:
     • Listen to on a music service
     • Share
     • Delete from your list

How do I get song info automatically?

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Sound and vibration Now Playing.
3. Turn on Identify songs playing nearby.
   • Make sure that your phone is charged and connected to Wi-Fi.
4. Wait a few minutes while your phone downloads the song database.
5. After the download, your phone automatically identifies songs playing around you and shows them on your lock screen.
6. To learn more about a song:
   • On your lock screen, tap the name and artist of the song shown.
   • If you're using your phone, expand notifications at the top, then tap the song notification.

How do I favourite a song?

Important: This feature is available for Pixel 3a and later, as well as Fold.

You can add a song that's playing nearby to your Now Playing favourites list from your lock screen. If you tap the music note next to the song title, a heart is added to the music note.

To review your favourite songs:

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Sound and vibration Now Playing.
3. Tap Now Playing history Favourites.

Tip: To remove a song from the favourites list, tap the heart .

How can I get even more music?

Important: This feature is only available for Pixel 4 and later.

Your phone can identify a lot of music automatically. If there are tracks that it doesn't have, you can search for them manually on Google with music search.

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Sound and vibration Now Playing.
3. Turn on Show search button on lock screen.
4. If your phone can’t identify a song, you can search for it. To search for a song, on your lock screen, tap music search .

How to set a default music player?

To set your favourite music service as the default to automatically play songs:

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap on Sound and vibration Now Playing Default music player.
3. Choose your default music player.

How can I change where notifications appear?

If you don't want to get song notifications at the top of your screen, you can turn them off.

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Sound and vibration Now Playing Notifications.
3. Turn off Recognised music notifications. Song info still displays on your lock screen.

Related resources

• Listen to music, calls and more on Pixel
• Change volume, sound and vibrate settings on your Pixel phone