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| Google provides cloud search for Now Playing feature |
Now Playing feature on Google Pixel phones has got a cloud search feature for unrecognizable songs.
A disassembly of Android System Intelligence (S.6) revealed that Google was working on some significant improvements to Now Playing across Pixel devices.
The code says it will undergo a major UI overhaul and a "Search is now on" fix to help users submit unknown song clips to Google.
The UI transition has not yet appeared on Pixel devices. However, according to recent reports, the company has started launching search capabilities on Pixel phones running Android 12 Beta.
New features come with the latest Android smartphone update, and a new "Show search button on lock screen" toggle has been added to Now Playing settings. It is described as follows: Identify songs that are playing nearby but your device cannot recognize them.
When this feature is enabled, a popup will appear: Select a song if cross-device recognition is not used. You can click the search icon to search for songs. During the search, the company receives the relevant audio information it needs to determine what is happening near it.
After enabling this feature, you will see a search icon when the phone cannot recognize a song. When you tap it, your phone will identify a short audio clip and send it to the company for song recognition.
Once the company recognizes the song, the name will appear in the same place. However, if that doesn't work, you'll see a "Song Not Found" warning.
This function is basically similar to Google's "Hum to Search" function and the company's "What is this song" function.
The time this new feature takes to recognize a song depends on a number of factors, including volume level, background noise, and connection speed. But during testing, the result remained accurate in less than 5 seconds.
Google is fundamentally redesigning Now Playing
The search is currently running on a limited number of Pixel devices running the beta version of Android 12. It's not clear if this release includes all Pixel devices.
The company now launched the Pixel 2 series in 2017. Not much has changed since its inception. Its user interface looks very similar to the time and offers almost the same functionality.
Over the past four years, the only noticeable change to Now Playing has been the Pixel Feature Drop, which was introduced in December 2020 last year. This adds the ability to export multiple songs from Now Play to a YouTube Music playlist.