Google is “enhancing” Now Playing on Pixel phones for an improved experience

Since it’s introduction years ago, the Now Playing feature on Pixel phones has always been a crowd favorite. Every time it magically identifies songs playing around me, I’m still a bit blown away by how well it can identify tunes in so many environments. Though it’s not been upgraded in a while, it’s never bothered me since it just does its job so well.

But that looks to be changing and Now Playing is getting a bit of an enhancement. 9to5 Google dove deep into the latest Android System Intelligence update (v.13 to be exact) and unearthed some exciting changes coming to Now Playing, internally referred to as “Enhance Now Playing.”

What’s new

First up, say goodbye to that generic music note icon in your Now Playing history. Google is adding album artwork to your recognized songs! It’s unclear if this will apply to your entire history or just new discoveries, but either way, it’s a welcome visual upgrade.

But the real kicker is the addition of cloud search capabilities. Now Playing will tap into the power of Google Search to identify songs that your device might not recognize locally. This means an even broader range of songs can be identified, especially those obscure tracks that only you seem to know.

Still safe and secure

Now Playing has always worked its magic offline, using a local database of songs to identify tunes without sending any audio to Google. This new “Enhance Now Playing” feature adds a layer of cloud-based search for those times when your phone needs a little help.

When you enable “Enhance Now Playing” (hopefully in the near future), your phone will send a short, digital audio fingerprint to Google for identification. Google assures that this process is privacy-preserving, thanks to Android’s Private Compute Core. You won’t see a mic indicator or any activity on your Privacy dashboard.

Coming soon

While these features were uncovered in the latest Android System Intelligence APK, they aren’t live for users just yet. Google is likely rolling this out server-side, so keep an eye out for an update in the coming weeks. I’m excited to see one of my favorite Pixel features get a bit of an improvement, and I know I’ll we’ll be on the lookout for it from this point forward.