Apple Watch Automatically Identifies Songs Playing Around You
Ever been in a situation where you hear a song in a cafe, a shop, or a car, and wonder what it is? On the latest Apple Watch models, your watch can work it out for you, and you don't even need to ask. The music doesn't have to be playing on the watch. It just needs to be audible around you. Apple Watch does the rest. It's all thanks to a new automatic feature in iOS 27 called Music Recognition,…
Situations arise where one hears a tune in a cafe, store, or vehicle, and questions its identity. The latest Apple Watch models now have the ability to determine this for the user, without any prompts. The song does not need to be originating from the watch itself, merely audible to the wearer. The magic lies in a recent automatic feature in iOS 27 known as Music Recognition, a component of Apple's broader Audio Intelligence lineup.
This technology leverages Shazam to pinpoint songs in the surrounding environment, and presents the results in the Smart Stack on the Apple Watch, complete with the song's title and artist. This process is seamless, requiring no user input beyond swiping up from the watch face or turning the Digital Crown. The prerequisite for this feature includes having an Apple Watch Series 12 or Ultra 4 paired with an iPhone 11 or later (or iPhone SE 2nd generation or later), all while running iOS 27.
Utilizing Music Recognition on Apple Watch entails swiping up on the watch face (or rotating the Digital Crown upward) to unveil the Smart Stack. The Music Recognition widget should then display the identified song's title and artist, provided it isn't too long a wait. A bonus feature allows the user to save the song to their Shazam history or Apple Music library with a simple tap.
Automatic Music Recognition can typically be activated by tapping Enable Music Detection the first time the Music Recognition widget appears in the Smart Stack. However, if this automatic activation isn't occurring, enabling it manually is straightforward: navigate to the Settings app on the Apple Watch, select Smart Stack, and toggle on Music Detection.
While older Apple Watch models can still identify songs manually via the Music Recognition app, the automatic Smart Stack version is only compatible with Series 12 and Ultra 4 models. Apple emphasizes that no audio is recorded or stored during this process. Instead, audio is handled within a secure buffer in the device's Secure Exclave, and only an acoustical representation of the song is transmitted to Shazam's servers for identification.
For further reading, explore the Apple Watch 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 guides, or check out the Apple Watch and Apple Watch Ultra product pages. A related discussion forum is also available.
Written by urgent.news from MacRumors's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
