Your iPhone can now tell you the name of any song playing

Adobe

The year is 2021. A vaccine has been out for months. You’re at a backyard barbecue or a hip restaurant. A song comes on that you love. You want to know, “What song is this?” With the push of a button, your iPhone can tell you, no app required.

OK, so you don’t really need to wait until 2021 to use this feature. If you’ve run the iOS 14.2 update on your iPhone and the iPadOS 14.2 update on your iPad, this song-identifying capability is available to you right now. It’s just … you know, in these times of social distancing, you might not be anywhere that’s playing music, unless you count your car or the tunes at the grocery store.

In 2018, Apple acquired Shazam, a service that picks up on a snippet of a song and identifies the music playing around you. While you can still download the app, Apple has also integrated the music-recognizing technology into a feature that can be accessed from your Control Center.

Apple

Even if you’ve recently updated your phone, though, this feature isn’t enabled by default.

So, here’s how you can enable a Control Center button going forward to identify a song:

  • Make sure you’re running the latest software on your iPhone or iPad. You’ll need to be on iOS 14.2 or later. To check for updates, go to Settings > General > Software update.
  • To add Shazam to your Control Settings, go to Settings > Control Center then tap the green add (plus) button next to Music Recognition.
  • To identify songs from your Control Center, tap the Shazam button. It will listen to what’s currently playing on your device or around you. Shazam can identify songs playing on your device even if you’re using headphones.

Another way to identify music playing around you? On an iPhone or iPad, you can say “Hey Siri,” then ask what the song is. This is so much easier than trying to remember lyrics of a song to Google later, right?

Entertainment, Music, News, Technology
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About the Author
Brittany Anas
Hi, I'm Brittany Anas (pronounced like the spice, anise ... see, that wasn't too embarrassing to say, now was it?) My professional writing career started when I was in elementary school and my grandma paid me $1 for each story I wrote for her. I'm a former newspaper reporter, with more than a decade of experience Hula-hooping at planning meetings and covering just about every beat from higher-education to crime to science for the Boulder Daily Camera and The Denver Post. Now, I'm a freelance writer, specializing in travel, health, food and adventure.

I've contributed to publications including Men's Journal, Forbes, Women's Health, American Way, TripSavvy, Eat This, Not That!, Apartment Therapy, Denver Life Magazine, 5280, Livability, The Denver Post, Simplemost, USA Today Travel Tips, Make it Better, AAA publications, Reader's Digest, Discover Life and more.

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