The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL introduced a bevy of new features built upon functionality first announced on the Pixel 2. Many — like the Camera app — are coming to last year’s devices, including the very useful history for Now Playing.
Now Playing uses on-device machine learning and a catalogue of song fingerprints to quickly identify music playing near you without needing to upload samples to the cloud. When launched last year, there was no way to natively store a history of recognized music, with developers creating third-party apps that required Notification access.
With the Pixel 3 last month, Google introduced a built-in history feature with a simple list of songs that your device has heard. Organized by date and time, tapping on a tune slides up a panel that can start the song in YouTube, Play Music, or YouTube Music. The latter two services support adding to your list of liked songs or a playlist.
There is also the ability to bring up a Google Assistant search or share the result. Other features include removing the song from history.
This feature is now rolling out to the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL via a server-side update with version 1.0.215774583 or later with Pixel Ambient Services required. Heading to Settings > Sound > Now Playing should yield the new section underneath the toggle to enable/disable the feature.
Meanwhile, more convenient access is afforded by a homescreen shortcut that opens the list directly. Since debuting on the Pixel 2 last year, Google has taken the Now Playing technology to power Sound Search in Google Assistant available on all Android devices.
More about Google Pixel 3:
- Google’s ‘Night Sight’ feature on Pixel 3 is simply impressive, here are some samples [Gallery + Video]
- Google Pixel 3 ‘Sights of Sound’ pop-up experience coming to 5 U.S. cities this fall
- PSA: The best way to tell Google what’s wrong with the Pixel 3 is right from your phone
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