How to use continuous background music recognition on iPhone
In this guide, we’ll show you how to use the Auto Shazam feature on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Android phone to have Shazam continuously listen to songs in the background and identify them, even if you exit the app or lock your device.
Imagine you’re sitting in a restaurant where cool music is playing in the background constantly. Or, you’re watching a movie with an awesome background track. Now, one way to identify these songs is to open the Shazam app, and it will tell you the name in mere seconds. It will also include links to listen to that track on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube. In fact, you can even set the Shazam app to automatically add all such identified songs to an Apple Music or Spotify playlist.
While easy, it won’t be practical for you to take out your iPhone every time the song in the restaurant changes. Or, start Shazam from Control Center each time and disturb your movie experience.
In such situations, you can use the handy Auto Shazam feature, which keeps the app active, scans songs in the background, and saves them to your recent searches. It will work even if you leave the Shazam app or lock your iPhone.
Even though Auto Shazam was launched way back in 2013, many aren’t aware of it and think of it as a successor to Google’s popular Now Playing feature on Pixel 2 and later from 2017.
Use Auto Shazam on iPhone
Follow these steps to enable always-on music recognition on your iPhone:
- Download the Shazam app on your iPhone if you haven’t already.
- Touch and hold the Shazam app icon on the iOS Home Screen and select Auto Shazam.
- The app will open with “Auto Shazam is on” showing on the screen. You can now exit the Shazam app or lock your iPhone and keep it on a table.
- The app will keep identifying songs automatically in the background. When you want to turn off always-on music recognition, open the Shazam app and tap the screen where it says ‘Auto Shazam is on.’
See all your Auto Shazam songs in one spot
The identified songs will appear as individual notifications, provided you have allowed the Shazam app to send notifications.
Auto Shazams will also appear under the Recently Found section of the Shazam app. Or, you can sort your identified songs to see only Auto Shazams:
- Launch the Shazam app on your iPhone and tap Library.
- Swipe across the top row and tap Sources from the end.
- Tap Auto Shazam to see only the songs that were identified automatically in the background.
You can also enable location in the Shazam app settings to tag your identified songs with the name of the place where they were identified.
Fix Auto Shazam not working on iPhone
If Shazam doesn’t identify songs automatically for you in the background, here are six things to keep in mind.
- After turning on Auto Shazam, make sure you see the orange microphone icon and dot at the top of your iPhone screen. This confirms the mics are being used by Shazam. If the active mic indicator is missing, force-quit and reopen the Shazam app, then enable Auto Shazam again.
- Keep your iPhone’s microphone unobstructed so it can properly catch the music playing around you. It’s best not to keep the phone in your pocket or bag when Auto Shazam is on.
- Don’t force close the Shazam app. Let it remain active in the background.
- Enable Background App Refresh for Shazam.
- Restart your iPhone, and this should fix the issue if it was caused by temporary system glitches.
- Update the Shazam app from the App Store.
Auto Shazam on other devices
You can also use the Shazam app on your other devices to automatically identify songs in the background.
iPad
The process is precisely the same as iPhone: touch and hold the Shazam icon on iPadOS Home Screen and select Auto Shazam.
Mac
Get the Shazam app from the App Store, open it, click its app icon in the menu bar, and then double-click the big Shazam button to start Auto Shazam. When it’s active, you’ll see the microphone icon in the menu bar.
Note:
- You can’t use Auto Shazam using the integrated Recognize Music icon added to the menu bar; you must download the Shazam app.
- Songs identified using the Shazam app on Mac don’t sync via iCloud to your other devices. However, songs identified via the Recognize Music button in Mac’s menu bar and Control Center do sync via iCloud.
Android phone
Download Apple’s Shazam app from the Google Play Store, open it, tap Library, tap the gear icon, enable Auto Shazam, and select Continuous mode.
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Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/12/10/use-auto-shazam/
