It also works across all SoC manufacturers as well as chip speeds. I’ve tested Ambient Music Mod on devices from OnePlus, Xiaomi, Honor, and Samsung and it has worked on every device. It is safe to say, you don’t have to worry about this app any more than any other app. The app is also entirely open source, so it’s easy to check if there are concerns about privacy or security. Just like on the Pixel, this feature is fully offline, and no recordings are saved or uploaded to the internet. There is even Now Playing history where you can look at all the tunes it has recognized and favorite them. It can put the currently playing song on your lock screen and send a notification upon recognition. Now Playing on Pixel 6 Pro Now Playing on Xiaomi 12Īmbient Music Mod looks similar to Now Playing for a Pixel-like experience. Now Playing does the same thing, but instead of being on a time interval, Pixel phones can detect when music starts or stops to start the recognition. Using Shizuku, Ambient Music Mod accesses the CAPTURE_AUDIO_HOTWORD API and records audio at a set time interval then processes this audio offline to match the fingerprint of a song to a database stored on the device. This is possible thanks to Shizuku, which is able to access normally hidden System APIs.

But, developer Kieron Quinn managed to port Now Playing to any un-rooted Android 12+ phone using his app Ambient Music Mod.

Since the Pixel 2, this feature has been Pixel exclusive, and no other phone manufacturer has released any competitor or alternative. It uses the same technology as “Hey Google” hotword detection to recognize music around you without you needing to do anything. Now Playing is one of the Pixel’s best features.

Nowplaying widget