How to Use Shazam's Music-Recognition Feature in iOS 14

Apple acquired music-discovery app Shazam in 2018, and quickly made it an ad-free experience. While Shazam has remained a standalone app available across mobile operating systems, Apple has now integrated Shazam more tightly into its ecosystem with iOS 14, allowing iPhone and iPad users to name that tune without opening a separate app. Here's how to use it.

Add Shazam to Control Center

To quickly figure out what song is playing, the best way to access Shazam is by adding it to Control Center. Here’s how to enable it:

• Open iPhone Settings

• Tap Control Center

• Tap the “+” next to Music Recognition

This adds a Shazam icon to Control Center. To move its position, tap and hold the hamburger icon to the right of the Music Recognition option and drag it up or down. To remove it, tap the red minus (-) icon and tap Remove.

When you need to find out the name and artist of the song you’re currently bopping your head to, swipe down from the top-right of your iPhone (or swipe up from the bottom if you have a Home button) to reveal Control Center, then tap the Shazam icon to start the search. Shazam will dig through its library and display the track name, artist name, and a small single/album cover art image as a notification banner at the top of the screen. 

Tapping on the banner will open Shazam’s website with more track information, where you can also check out synced lyrics. If you have the Shazam app installed, you will be taken to the app and presented with additional track and artist information.

Given Shazam is now an Apple app, the option to open the song in Apple Music features prominently, but you can tap the three-dot menu on the top right to open it within another music-streaming service, like Spotify. Connect your Shazam app to Apple Music or Spotify, and the app will display the option to open your Shazam'd songs in that app going forward.

Ask Siri to Start Shazam

Another way to use Shazam’s music-recognition feature is to ask Siri: "What song is playing?" Siri will discover and reveal additional track information via a notification banner, similar to the Control Center method. Additionally, you can tell Siri “play more songs like this,” and it will queue up similar tracks in Apple Music.

Evoking Siri to discover music is faster than opening Control Center and tapping the Shazam icon. On the other hand, by using Siri, you won’t be able to disguise the fact that you don’t know a song. But however you access Shazam, the app can help you avoid feeling like an out-of-touch old fogey when it comes to what the kids are listening to these days.

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