The Google Pixel Feature That the iPhone Still Can’t Match
Everyone knows the moment. You hear a song being played around the world, and you either just don’t remember the name, or it’s the first time you’ve heard it and you want to know more. What if your phone automatically identified it on its own? This is the magic of Pixel “Now Playing,” and Apple is still struggling to catch up.
What’s currently playing on a Pixel phone?
“Now Playing” has been a core feature of Pixel phones almost since the beginning (launched on the Pixel 2 series). The idea is quite simple, but very practical. The phone passively listens to music in the background and automatically identifies songs without you having to ask.
When Google hears a song and can identify it, the name and artist appear on the lock screen. You can then tap the song and navigate to it directly in YouTube Music, YouTube or Spotify. If the phone detects that music is playing, but cannot identify the song, an icon appears that allows you to perform a manual audio search with Google. Pixel phones also keep a history, going back several months, of all identified songs. It’s even possible to add songs to a YouTube Music playlist from the history page.
It’s all about speed
On an iPhone, Now Playing does not exist. The closest thing to this is the Shazam shortcut in Control Center. But it’s not such a simple process. You need to unlock your iPhone, swipe to the Control Center, tap the Shazam icon, and wait for the little animation to identify the song. It’s very easy to miss the end of the song as the iPhone catches up, a bit like scrambling to scan a QR code in a TV commercial.
The genius of Now Playing is how it completely removes any effort on your part. It runs silently, passively, and constantly in the background, listening to music using on-device processing. No data leaves your phone and it uses minimal battery. You simply hear a song you like, glance at your lock screen and there it is, printed at the bottom of the screen. It’s an instant, effortless moment of recognition that feels incredibly futuristic every time I use it.
The iPhone, of course, can recognize music. Siri is integrated with Shazam, and you can add the aforementioned button to your Control Center. The main difference, however, is that both of these methods require action on your part, and this seems to be an afterthought on Apple’s part. You have to ask Siri or actively press a button. This is a utility that you have to invoke manually, not an ambient intelligence layer built directly into the phone.
A cool feature to show off
This subtle difference is one of the features that always makes me feel like I have a Pixel phone. It’s common to go out with people and inevitably someone will ask, “What’s that song?” It’s like a superpower to be able to pull out my phone and instantly have the answer. Of course, overall, Now Playing isn’t a feature that will convince anyone to buy a Pixel over an iPhone, but the little things add up.
In 2025, what I like about Now Playing is that it resembles what many “AI features” claim and fail to do. With no intervention on my part, it works in the background and makes my life a little easier. He’s also remarkably reliable and doesn’t make anything up when he can’t identify a song. For the sake of iPhone owners, I’d like to see Apple adopt a similar feature. That would be a big compliment to Apple Music. Let’s just hope the AI doesn’t end up ruining it.
