If you had watched the event and followed up on all the nitty-gritty of the Pixel 2, you must have noticed that it’s stuffed with innovative features such as Google Lens, AR stickers, a smarter Google Assistant, and a plenty of power – courtesy the Snapdragon 835 chipset. However, the most interesting highlight is the Now Playing feature in the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. This native feature recognizes songs automatically and is available on a tap on the lock screen. As interesting as it seems, isn’t paying $649 and $849 just for this feature a bit of an overkill? Worry not! We are talking Android here and there’s always a smart workaround. Here, we have curated the best Android apps that will help you get Google Pixel’s Now Playing feature without putting a dent in your savings.
1. Google’s What Song is This
‘Ok Google’ — the command can help us with a lot of our work. Right from setting an alarm to creating reminders, just to name a few. Another interesting feature is the built-in What Song is This feature. Just tap on the mic icon and give the said command. Once it recognizes the song, it’ll give you the option to play or buy the song. The bad news is this feature isn’t available in all the countries, including India. If you’re based out of one such country, you can instead use a third-party app for help.
2. Shazam
When it comes to identifying songs, few apps can beat the accuracy and precision of Shazam. All you have to do is download the app, grant the necessary Android permissions and it’ll start its hunt for the song playing in the background. If you have already used Shazam, you may know about its other useful features like History, Auto Shazam and etc. To get the full Pixel-like experience, just head over to the lock screen settings and enable Shazam as the lock screen app. Having done that, whenever you’d need the app to identify a peppy song quickly, launch the app directly from the lock screen. The rest of the work will be done by the app based on the song’s numeric signature. Did you know you can Shazam a song from within Snapchat? Well, now you do.
3. MusicID
Another lesser known music recognition Android app is MusicID from Gravity Mobile. However, you need to have a bit of patience as this app isn’t as fast as Shazam. It functions the same way as Shazam does. Having given the necessary permissions, just touch the Red part on the top of the app and it will start recognizing the song playing in the background. Though MusicID was able to recognize a majority of the old classics, it’s the new songs that can be a bit of a problem. Apart from the above, it can also give a detailed information about the artist and the song. As a relatively new app, compared to Shazam, MusicID is accurate in its predictions. It’s the power consumption, which might be an issue, especially if your phone has a battery problem. During the time MusicID was running, the power monitor of my Galaxy Note8 repeatedly threw a warning that it’s consuming more power than it should.
4. SoundHound – Music Discovery
The fourth on this list is SoundHound. It matches the same speed and accuracy of Shazam and can run in the background without any major issues concerning battery consumption. The best part of this app is that it responds to your command. All you have to say in ‘Ok Hound’ and the next time you want the name of a new song, this command will do the trick.
What’re You Listening To?
So, this was how you can get Pixel 2’s Now Playing feature on your Android without spending a dime. We have rounded up four ways and we bet you’ll find your dream alternative in one of the above. Before you head over to another one of our interesting articles on Android, let us know your thoughts in the comments below. The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
