As of iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2, you’ve been able to access music recognition through the Control Center overlay. Apple has announced that customers have used this Shazam-powered feature more than a billion times since those software updates dropped in November 2020.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS:
- Shazam passes 1 billion uses via iOS Control Center
- Apple also shared the top 10 most Shazamed songs
- Using Shazam via Control Center requires iOS 14.2+
Shazam via iOS Control Center has been used 1 billion times
The company has also shared the top 10 most Shazamed songs identified with the iOS Control Center feature, ranked by popularity from the most to least popular.
- “Talking To The Moon” by Bruno Mars
- “Astronaut In The Ocean” by Masked Wolf
- “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” by Lil Nas X
- “Beggin” by Maneskin
- “Another Love” by Tom Odell
- “Runaway” by Aurora
- “Dick” by StarBoi3 Feat. Doja Cat
- “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence
- “Stay” by The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber
- “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo
The milestone comes after Shazam in June 2021 passed one billion monthly recognitions across all the access points through which Shazam functionality is available. And now we learn Shazam’s Control Center feature alone has passed one billion sessions in the nearly eleven months since its November 5, 2020 launch as part of the iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2 updates.
Standalone Shazam apps are available for multiple platforms — iOS, macOS, watchOS, Android and Android Wear — with the download links available on the official Shazam website.
How to use Shazam via Control Center
The feature rolled out to iPhone and iPad owners with the release of iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2 on November 5, 2020. To turn on Shazam in Control Center, go to Settings → Control Center and be sure that “Music Recognition” is included underneath the “Active Controls” heading. If not, touch the plus (+) sign next to “Music Recognition” to add it to Control Center.
→ How to use Shazam music recognition from iPhone’s Control Center
This provides you with fast access to the Shazam-powered feature even if you don’t have the dedicated Shazam app installed. On top of that, the feature can even recognize music while you’re listening to it on your AirPods provided you’ve accessed it from Control Center.
Other ways to access Shazam
A support document on the Apple website mentions other ways of accessing Shazam functionality on Apple devices, including asking Siri, using the Shazam widget and getting access to Shazam from your Mac’s menu bar, to name but a few.
And if you’re big on iOS automation, you’ll want to try out the “Shazam It” action available in Apple’s Shortcuts app which lets you use Shazam to recognize songs programmatically.
Shazam and iOS 15
Shazam is getting new features in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 that are aimed at both end-users and developers. For iPhone and iPad owners, the update will bring the ability to access Shazam’s automatically-created list of songs recognized via Control Center. As for app makers, they now have the official tools at their disposal to implement Shazam functionality into their own apps.