Pixel’s Now Playing feature has officially rolled out as an app

Pixel phones have long had a feature known as Now Playing, which identifies the music you’re listening to. There have been signs that Google was working on a standalone app, but it was unknown if or when this app would become available. It appears that day is today, as the Now Playing app has finally launched.

Previously, Now Playing was bundled into Android System Intelligence. Now the background music identification tool has been turned into its own standalone app on the Google Play Store.

The feature still works how it used to, automatically identifying music in your surrounding area on your lock screen. However, this app is more than just a shortcut to the tool. The app opens up to a hub with an icon in the middle of the screen, which can be tapped to help you find out what song is playing. There’s also a Now Playing history section, allowing you to view and manage previous songs you’ve identified. And you’ll be able to listen to the songs in your history on your favorite music services.

When initially attempting to open the app, contributor AssembleDebug ran into an issue. As seen in the left screenshot above, there was a dialog box that stated that an automatic update is needed before the app can be accessed. It suggested to “Check back in a few hours.” However, AssembleDebug was able to access the settings page in the app, seen in the above screenshot to the right.

Although AssembleDebug was unable to access the Now Playing app, Telegram user @Diablo0090 shared with us the screenshots above to show what the app looks like. It also appears that Google has added Day and Time filters to the history search.