The Google Pixel series of smartphones is about to get a lot handier for music discovery. The built-in Now Playing feature is getting a Summary page for a granular look at the music you’ve heard.
The Now Playing phone listens ambiently to pick up music playing around you. It matches this music against a lengthy song database stored on every Pixel device. It shows a history of songs that are recognized by the feature, allowing you to favorite them for listening on your favorite music streaming service. A new ‘Summary’ tab, as spotted by Kieron Quinn and reported on by 9to5Google, showcases a tab full of statistics about the music with categories for genre, artist, and frequency for songs.
The header reports music listening habits for the last 30 days split across how many tracks, artists, and genres you’ve listened to. Further data breaks down the most heard songs, most heard artists, and when you listen to music on a 24-hour timeline. Data like that is incredibly useful because it’s platform agnostic—it will pick up that Fleetwood Mac song playing on the Safeway Muzak system while you’re shopping for groceries.
The new feature was found in the latest Android 14 build, so it’s unclear when Pixel devices will see this new Summary tab in Now Playing. It could be one of the features Google plans to launch alongside its new series of Pixel devices, with the Pixel 7a, Pixel Fold, and Pixel Tablet devices expected to be announced soon.
Can other Android devices see Now Playing music listening history like Pixel devices?
Yes, you can get this feature working on any Android smartphone if you’re willing to side-load the Ambient Music Mod APK. The developer who surfaced the Summary tab says he plans on adding the feature to this app—making it possible to track your music discovery with any Android device.