Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is lastly trying to improve the Pixel’s Now Enjoying characteristic by including album artwork to the historical past web page.
- Because the characteristic was launched, it’s been in a position to present you an inventory of songs it acknowledged, however that checklist solely included the tune identify, artist, and time of recognition.
- A current code change means that the characteristic will begin to pull album artwork photographs curated by YouTube Music.
Google Pixel gadgets could not all the time have the best possible {hardware} amongst Android telephones, however they do supply a whole lot of actually enticing Pixel-only options which are laborious to duplicate on different gadgets. Take “Now Enjoying” for instance: This Pixel unique was launched with the Pixel 2 collection in 2017, and it identifies songs which are taking part in close by. Certain, apps like Shazam are available and have completed music recognition for years, however Now Enjoying works fully within the background with out you even needing to tug out your cellphone.
You’re studying an Authority Insights story. Uncover Authority Insights for extra unique studies, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech protection you received’t discover anyplace else.
The way in which Now Enjoying works is sort of intelligent. Your Pixel cellphone downloads a database containing tens of 1000’s of fingerprints of the preferred songs in your area. These fingerprints are distinctive identifiers that permit your cellphone to acknowledge what tune is taking part in utilizing only some seconds of audio. Your cellphone’s extremely low energy co-processor is constantly analyzing audio by the microphone, and when it picks up audio that sounds prefer it may very well be music, the primary processor is woken as much as report just a few seconds of the audio. An on-device machine studying mannequin then matches the audio to one of many fingerprints within the Now Enjoying database. Lastly, the identify and artist of the tune is displayed on the lock display screen in addition to in a notification.
To the tip consumer, Now Enjoying works like magic, which is why it stays probably the most beloved Pixel-only options. Sadly, it lacks some polish and hasn’t seen an replace in years. Lastly, although, Google appears to be like to be updating Now Enjoying with one thing it ought to have had a very long time in the past: album artwork within the historical past web page.
Below Settings > Sound & vibration > Now Enjoying, you’ll be able to view the historical past of songs that the characteristic has recognized. This web page lists the historical past of recognized songs in reverse chronological order. Every entry has the identify of the tune, the identify of the tune’s artist, and a button so as to add it to the favorites tab. There’s additionally an icon for every entry, nevertheless it’s merely a generic word icon quite than something that’s related to the tune. It’s been that approach for years, which is odd contemplating that Google owns one of many greatest music streaming platforms on this planet in YouTube Music. Odder nonetheless, Now Enjoying already has some primary integration with YouTube Music in that you would be able to faucet an entry to open a backside sheet the place you’ll be able to instantly add the tune to a playlist.
Google is lastly trying so as to add album artwork to Now Enjoying historical past, although. A current code change submitted to the repository for Personal Compute Companies, the system app that handles downloading the Now Enjoying database, means that Now Enjoying album artwork downloads are within the works. The code change titled “#AlbumArt Add Now Enjoying album artwork downloads to the community utilization log” provides strings for a brand new entry in Personal Compute Companies’s community utilization log. This new entry will allow you to see when Now Enjoying has downloaded album artwork photographs, both from YouTube Music for Now Enjoying’s on-device ambient tune recognition characteristic or from Google Seek for Now Enjoying’s on-demand Cloud Search characteristic.
Listed below are extra screenshots of the brand new “community utilization log” supplied by the Personal Compute Companies app, courtesy of Telegram consumer dafelleant. pic.twitter.com/xaW1poKj8X
Listed below are the related strings from the code change:
Code
<!-- Description of downloads consisting of Album Artwork photographs for Now Enjoying, displayed within the community utilization log. [CHAR_LIMIT=NONE] -->
<string identify="description_nowplaying_albumart">Up to date the on-device album artwork cache for Now Enjoying</string>
<!-- Url sample for album artwork photographs curated by YouTube Music, used for on-device database matches. A extra particular subdomain can be used sooner or later (ETA 12/2025) [CHAR_LIMIT=NONE] -->
<string identify="url_regex_nowplaying_albumart_ondevice" translatable="false">https://yt[3-6].googleusercontent.com/.*</string>
<!-- Url sample for album artwork photographs curated by Google Search, used for Cloud Search matches. A extra particular path can be used sooner or later (ETA 12/2025) [CHAR_LIMIT=NONE] -->
<string identify="url_regex_nowplaying_albumart_ondemand" translatable="false">https://encrypted-tbn[0-9].gstatic.com/photographs?.*</string>What’s fascinating is that the URL the place Now Enjoying will obtain the album artwork photographs from can be modified sooner or later. Google particularly notes that “a extra particular subdomain can be used sooner or later (ETA 12/2025).” We don’t know if that date is indicative of the characteristic’s launch, however we actually hope not as a result of that’s greater than a yr away!
In any case, when you’re curious what the Now Enjoying historical past web page will appear to be with album artwork, you don’t need to think about it. Ambient Music Mod, an open supply reverse engineered port of Now Enjoying by developer Kieron Quinn, consists of album artwork in its historical past web page, as you’ll be able to see beneath. It additionally has an extra abstract tab taken from the unreleased Now Enjoying abstract characteristic that Google was noticed engaged on early final yr.
Hopefully Google rolls out this replace to Now Enjoying quickly alongside the unreleased abstract characteristic. The latter could be particularly nice to have as we’re nearing the tip of the yr, which might coincide properly with Spotify Wrapped 2024 and different end-of-year music recaps.
