Google Pixel’s ‘Now Playing’ feature will soon show fun stats on songs you’ve heard

Ben Schoon | Apr 18 2023 - 7:00 am PT

“Now Playing” made its debut on Google’s second Pixel series and, in the time since, has continued to be one of many features that add a bit of delight and utility to Google’s software. Now, Google is working on expanding “Now Playing” on Pixel to include a new “Summary” page that breaks down songs you’ve heard.

On Pixel phones, “Now Playing” has a simple job. It listens ambiently to what the microphones hear, picks up music playing around you, and matches it with a lengthy list of songs from a database stored on your device. Given the feature doesn’t touch Google’s servers for its information, it’s always been very impressive, especially as it’s very accurate. It wasn’t until 2021 that Google added cloud search to Now Playing, which expanded its functionality to an even larger library. The feature also supports showing a history of songs that it has recognized, as introduced with the Pixel 3, as well as helping you find those songs on a variety of music services and build a library of “favorites” directly within Now Playing.

Back in 2021, we reported that Google was working on adding more functionality to Now Playing on Pixel, with a new “Summary” tab in the works. Now, Google appears to finally be making progress on that addition.

In a newer version of Now Playing that appeared in a recent Android 14 build, we can see what the “Summary” tab will be able to do on Pixel phones. The Summary page was spotted by Kieron Quinn (@Quinny898). Quinn was able to surface the feature and also plans to add it to his Ambient Music Mod app, which, as our Max Weinbach covered in-depth last year, ports the Pixel’s Now Playing feature to other Android phones.

As the name implies, this tab will be able to pull information from statistics on what your phone has identified and categorize that information by genre, artist, and frequency at which you’ve heard certain songs.

The page will also be able to break down when your phone hears the most music during the course of a day, and the summary uses data from the past 30 days. Songs on the Summary page can be clicked, just like on the History page, and tapping an artist lets you search for any songs you’ve heard by that artist.

We input a few songs manually so you can see how the feature works.

It’s still not entirely clear when Google plans to bring the new “Summary” tab to Now Playing on Pixel phones officially. While the feature was found in an Android 14 build, it’s likely possible it could arrive in a future Feature Drop or with the launch of a new Pixel device (using Quinn’s mod, the feature works on older Android versions). If the latter, Google certainly has plenty of choices, with Pixel 7a, Pixel Fold, and Pixel Tablet just around the corner.