6 ms·

Relevant fact for context: the Pixel 2 shipped with a built-in music identification feature. https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/19/how-googles-pixel-2-now-playing

Relevant fact for context: the Pixel 2 shipped with a built-in music identification feature. https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/19/how-googles-pixel-2-now-playing-song-identification-works/ https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/19/how-googles-pixel-2-now-p...

saturdaysaint 9y ago
Siri has been able to identify music (I believe using Shazam?) for 3 - 4 years. I suspect they were shopping themselves around, and Apple wanted to own the technology enough to give them their asking price.
- enraged_camel 9y ago
  And I mean why not? Apple has over $250 billion in cash, so they might as well use it to make acquisitions like this.
- MBCook 9y ago
  The difference is that it never seems to work with Siri where as soon as I open the Shazam app it works fine. I use Siri a lot, I’m not a Siri hater. But I don’t think this feature has ever worked when I tried it.
  - hsod 9y ago
    Interesting, this is pretty much the only thing I use Siri for and it works great in my experience. "Siri, name that tune"
    - styfle 9y ago
      Does Siri save the result anywhere? It’s nice to get an instant response but my memory isn’t very good.
      - Gorbzel 9y ago
        iTunes Store app
- kalleboo 9y ago
  Gracenote (the people who bought and closed CDDB) offer music identifying to anyone who wants to license it. I remember Sony Ericsson feature phones all had this feature powered by gracenote. I would assume that's what Apple is using.
  - ghostly_s 9y ago
    Apple's music ID results have always had the Shazam logo in the corner.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
- ghostly_s 9y ago
  I haven't been able to determine if this is a deliberate plot or just incompetence, but Siri's language parsing for the Shazam music identification became maddeningly limited in some recent iOS update. The only phrasing I can trigger it with now is "What's this song?". "Name this song", "What song is this", etc. all give me some Marx-brothers-esque response like "Sorry, I couldn't find the song What in your library."
  - ghostly_s 9y ago
    Oh, and the only thing you can do with the result is tap it to be bumped to Apple Music, where (if you have a subscription and the song is available), the song starts playing. Hey Apple, when in the history of ever has someone wanted to start playing the song they are already listening to? At least let me copy the damn name. Siri is a dumpster fire.
  - LeoPanthera 9y ago
    I use "What's playing?"
- ehsankia 9y ago
  The technology Google is using here is very different. They also have active detection on Assitant, but this one is a passive 24/7 detection. There's a local database of the ~10k most popular songs, and it's only ~50mb [0]. It's all done locally, and when it works (Which is very often), you just have to look down at your phone and the song name is already there on the lockscreen without you touching anything. [0] https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-2-now-playing-song-list/ https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-2-now-playing-so...
  - senatorobama 9y ago
    What a waste of power.
    - krasin 9y ago
      You seem to presume that uses a lot of power. Which (to the best of my knowledge) is not true.
  - pducks32 9y ago
    I don't know that sounds very cool, but it really just seems like a waste of power. I can't think of the last time I would want that.
    - ehsankia 9y ago
      As mentioned above, this is already running to do OK Google detection. It's also not scanning 100% of the audio, as far as I understand, it analyzes samples roughly each minute. I'm sure they would not make this a feature if it had a big impact. From my own experience, turning this feature on or off made no difference in battery life.
- on_and_off 9y ago
  Google Assistant has also been able to that for ages. The pixel does something very different : it automatically tries to identify what is playing right now and writes the name of the song on the lockscreen. It might seem to be gimmicky but I have found myself really liking this feature.
komali2 9y ago
Is it the one that "google now" uses, or "google assistant?" Are they the same? I don't even know with google anymore man I just can't keep track of this shit.
- puzzle 9y ago
  The one on Pixel 2 is done in the background on device, but it has a small catalog of titles. You can explicitly ask the Assistant for all the other songs.
- agildehaus 9y ago
  Google assistant has a music identification feature now (up until recently it did not). Now is still there, but the search feature that used to be on the launcher is just a web search now (can't do anything fancy with it anymore, that's reserved for Assistant). Pixel 2 has a music identifier that is always listening and will place what song is playing on your lock screen. It does this with a local database and does not send audio data to Google.
  - mynameisvlad 9y ago
    > It does this with a local database and does not send audio data to Google. Do you have details on this? I'm honestly quite surprised; I'd imagine the fingerprints to enough songs for that feature to be usable would take up quite a bit of space.
    - slavik81 9y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15883218 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15883218
  - komali2 9y ago
    Wait really? I still use my launcher for all my things, because it has more "voice commands" than the Assistant.
    - 9y ago
mmanfrin 9y ago
Android has had music identification since at least the Nexus 4. Maybe it was 'built in' to the assistant now, but it's been around forever. All you have to do is hold up voice search to music.
- nerflad 9y ago
  Wow, I've been using Android since 2012 and I had no idea about that. Thanks!
- ehsankia 9y ago
  This is very different. It runs 24/7 aongside the "ok google" detection, and as soon as it detects a song, it'll show the name on the lockscreen. So normally, all you have to do is look at your phone to get the song name [0]. This is also done 100% locally, there's a offline database of 10k+ songs which is only ~50mb [1], and gets updated regularly. [0] https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/19/how-googles-pixel-2-now-playing-song-identification-works/ https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/19/how-googles-pixel-2-now-p... [1] https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-2-now-playing-song-list/ https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-2-now-playing-so...
  - IgorPartola 9y ago
    That is impressive.
  - afro88 9y ago
    Now it all makes sense. This is a killer feature
  - ksec 9y ago
    Is this US / Regional Specific? I have never seen this working anywhere in Asia.
    - metahost 9y ago
      Works in India for me. I'm on Android Oreo (OnePlus 3).
draw_down 9y ago
Is that actually relevant?

saturdaysaint 9y ago

Siri has been able to identify music (I believe using Shazam?) for 3 - 4 years. I suspect they were shopping themselves around, and Apple wanted to own the technology enough to give them their asking price.

enraged_camel 9y ago
And I mean why not? Apple has over $250 billion in cash, so they might as well use it to make acquisitions like this.
MBCook 9y ago
The difference is that it never seems to work with Siri where as soon as I open the Shazam app it works fine. I use Siri a lot, I’m not a Siri hater. But I don’t think this feature has ever worked when I tried it.
- hsod 9y ago
  Interesting, this is pretty much the only thing I use Siri for and it works great in my experience. "Siri, name that tune"
  - styfle 9y ago
    Does Siri save the result anywhere? It’s nice to get an instant response but my memory isn’t very good.
    - Gorbzel 9y ago
      iTunes Store app
kalleboo 9y ago
Gracenote (the people who bought and closed CDDB) offer music identifying to anyone who wants to license it. I remember Sony Ericsson feature phones all had this feature powered by gracenote. I would assume that's what Apple is using.
- ghostly_s 9y ago
  Apple's music ID results have always had the Shazam logo in the corner.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
ghostly_s 9y ago
I haven't been able to determine if this is a deliberate plot or just incompetence, but Siri's language parsing for the Shazam music identification became maddeningly limited in some recent iOS update. The only phrasing I can trigger it with now is "What's this song?". "Name this song", "What song is this", etc. all give me some Marx-brothers-esque response like "Sorry, I couldn't find the song What in your library."
- ghostly_s 9y ago
  Oh, and the only thing you can do with the result is tap it to be bumped to Apple Music, where (if you have a subscription and the song is available), the song starts playing. Hey Apple, when in the history of ever has someone wanted to start playing the song they are already listening to? At least let me copy the damn name. Siri is a dumpster fire.
- LeoPanthera 9y ago
  I use "What's playing?"
ehsankia 9y ago
The technology Google is using here is very different. They also have active detection on Assitant, but this one is a passive 24/7 detection. There's a local database of the ~10k most popular songs, and it's only ~50mb [0]. It's all done locally, and when it works (Which is very often), you just have to look down at your phone and the song name is already there on the lockscreen without you touching anything. [0] https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-2-now-playing-song-list/ https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-2-now-playing-so...
- senatorobama 9y ago
  What a waste of power.
  - krasin 9y ago
    You seem to presume that uses a lot of power. Which (to the best of my knowledge) is not true.
- pducks32 9y ago
  I don't know that sounds very cool, but it really just seems like a waste of power. I can't think of the last time I would want that.
  - ehsankia 9y ago
    As mentioned above, this is already running to do OK Google detection. It's also not scanning 100% of the audio, as far as I understand, it analyzes samples roughly each minute. I'm sure they would not make this a feature if it had a big impact. From my own experience, turning this feature on or off made no difference in battery life.
on_and_off 9y ago
Google Assistant has also been able to that for ages. The pixel does something very different : it automatically tries to identify what is playing right now and writes the name of the song on the lockscreen. It might seem to be gimmicky but I have found myself really liking this feature.

komali2 9y ago

Is it the one that "google now" uses, or "google assistant?" Are they the same? I don't even know with google anymore man I just can't keep track of this shit.

puzzle 9y ago
The one on Pixel 2 is done in the background on device, but it has a small catalog of titles. You can explicitly ask the Assistant for all the other songs.
agildehaus 9y ago
Google assistant has a music identification feature now (up until recently it did not). Now is still there, but the search feature that used to be on the launcher is just a web search now (can't do anything fancy with it anymore, that's reserved for Assistant). Pixel 2 has a music identifier that is always listening and will place what song is playing on your lock screen. It does this with a local database and does not send audio data to Google.
- mynameisvlad 9y ago
  > It does this with a local database and does not send audio data to Google. Do you have details on this? I'm honestly quite surprised; I'd imagine the fingerprints to enough songs for that feature to be usable would take up quite a bit of space.
  - slavik81 9y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15883218 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15883218
- komali2 9y ago
  Wait really? I still use my launcher for all my things, because it has more "voice commands" than the Assistant.
  - 9y ago

mmanfrin 9y ago

Android has had music identification since at least the Nexus 4. Maybe it was 'built in' to the assistant now, but it's been around forever. All you have to do is hold up voice search to music.

nerflad 9y ago
Wow, I've been using Android since 2012 and I had no idea about that. Thanks!
ehsankia 9y ago
This is very different. It runs 24/7 aongside the "ok google" detection, and as soon as it detects a song, it'll show the name on the lockscreen. So normally, all you have to do is look at your phone to get the song name [0]. This is also done 100% locally, there's a offline database of 10k+ songs which is only ~50mb [1], and gets updated regularly. [0] https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/19/how-googles-pixel-2-now-playing-song-identification-works/ https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/19/how-googles-pixel-2-now-p... [1] https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-2-now-playing-song-list/ https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-2-now-playing-so...
- IgorPartola 9y ago
  That is impressive.
- afro88 9y ago
  Now it all makes sense. This is a killer feature
- ksec 9y ago
  Is this US / Regional Specific? I have never seen this working anywhere in Asia.
  - metahost 9y ago
    Works in India for me. I'm on Android Oreo (OnePlus 3).

draw_down 9y ago

Is that actually relevant?