Since the possession of a smartphone, I have developed an unhealthy obsession to discover new music.
It started innocently, with recommendations on Amazon and Youtube music leading to memorable discoveries.
But more recently, it has become uncontrollable. Now, if I hear an interesting distance song that I don't know, I'm just to have To find out what it is.
Modern phones facilitate this: simply download Shazam and press the large button in the middle of the screen. You will generally be presented with the title and the song artist in a few seconds.
However, this approach has two major faults.
The first is that this eliminates you from the moment. I cannot tell you how many times I maintained my phone in the air like an idiot, desperately trying to know which song plays. Invariably, this does not work for the first time, at the great enclosure of everyone around me.
You can configure it on “ auto shazam '', but it requires that your microphone is permanently active, which is not exactly ideal.
I can't tell you how many times I have kept my phone in the air like an idiot, desperately trying to know which song play
The other is that Shazam relies on an internet connection at work. Is it when I hear a cool song in an ad on television, but during a party in a basement? You can forget it.
On paper, an exclusive feature of Google Pixel phones is the perfect solution. Presented for the first time in 2017, “Playing” automatically listens to any song that plays near your phone and identifies it.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
In addition, it works entirely on disk, which means it will work even when you are not connected. No sound is never sent to Google, so it is a much better option with regard to confidentiality.
You can see why I was so excited to try it. When I reviewed my first Pixel phone (Pixel 8), it worked well most of the time. But after using the Pixel 9 Pro XL for more than three months, the limits of reading now were brutally exposed.
The big problem? This only works about two -thirds of the time. For the two songs that were identified transparent, there was another which was a total failure. I found that he had struggled with songs published in the last month, suggesting that his offline database is obsolete.
After using the Pixel 9 Pro XL for more than three months, the limits of reading now have been brutally exposed
As you can expect, there is also a big difference in success rates when you have your phone on a table as opposed to your pocket. It also constantly fights if the sound is stifled or there are competing noises.
As soon as he recognizes that there is a song that plays, Google will allow you to search for manually from the locking screen. But the success rate does not seem to improve, and it is only slightly more practical than opening the Shazam application, which I found much more reliable.
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Unfortunately, the current iteration of now playing is anything but seamless. For the best chance of discovering what a song is, open Shazam and pray that you have an internet connection.
It's not only me: the reading functionality has been broken for some time.
However, there is hope on the horizon. As Ars Technica reports, Google replied to users complaining that the functionality does not work, saying that it has been “marked as fixed” and that a fix is ”deployed in an upcoming version”.
Exactly when it will be to see. But if it meant that playing now realizes your incredible potential, it will change the situation for me and other fanatics of music discovery.
In the meantime, Shazam is your best bet. Or, I don't know, you might live with the uncertainty of not knowing? Now there is a terrifying concept.
