Your iPhone can recognize any song that’s playing with just a tap — here’s how to set it up

Apple released a software update for iPhones and iPads earlier this month that includes a built-in music recognition button that can help you quickly identify a song that’s playing.

It’s one way Apple is using Shazam, which it acquired in 2018 for an estimated $400 million. And you don’t need to have the Shazam app installed for this to work. All you do is add a button to the Control Center menu and then, when you hear a song you like and want to know who the artist is, you just tap the button.

It’s fun and easy to set up. Here’s what you do.

• First, make sure you’re running the latest software on your iPhone. To do that, go to Settings > General > Software update. You need to be on iOS 14.2 or newer.
• Once the update is installed open Settings on your iPhone.
• Tap Control Center.
• Scroll down under “More” and tap the green ‘+’ button next to Music Recognition.

That adds the music recognition function to Control Center.

On an iPhone with Face ID, you just pull down the Control Center shade by swiping down from the top-right of the phone and tapping the Music Recognition icon, which I’ve labeled in the image above. On iPhones with a home button, just swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access this menu and find the icon.

Now you can use it whenever you hear a song, even if it’s while you’re listening to a playlist with headphones on, to see the song title and artist.