Shazam, the Apple-owned song recognition service, now works on your Android smartwatch, even if your phone isn’t with you — with a few caveats. Once you update Shazam on Wear OS, you’ll be able to use it to identify songs right on your smartwatch. This was first reported by 9to5Google and is a significant improvement for people with Wear OS smartwatches.
You can download the latest Shazam update from the Play Store and use the app whether you have your phone with you or not. Another new feature is the ability to instantly sync recognized songs across all devices. Once you open the app, you’ll need to tap the Shazam icon to start listening to the music playing around you. Note that Shazam on Wear OS still requires internet to work. If your watch is offline, the app will record the songs you try to identify and name them for you when you’re back online. You can then listen to those songs on the music streaming service of your choice.
Google ships a built-in music identifier feature with Wear OS, and it’s still faster than using Shazam on your Android smartwatch. Your Google Pixel smartphone comes with a handy Now Playing feature that automatically recognizes songs playing around you. It would be nice to see this feature added to Wear OS, but the unfortunate reality is that Google has slowed down the pace of development of the smartwatch platform.
For some people, Shazam might prove to be a better alternative to Wear OS’s built-in song recognition feature, as you can sync it across platforms and automatically add identified songs to a Spotify playlist. It’s good to know that Apple is investing in the development of Shazam on platforms it doesn’t own (Android app RIP Dark Sky).