Apple's Shazam Control Center Music Recognition Feature Hits 1 Billion Songs Identified - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Apple's Shazam Control Center Music Recognition Feature Hits 1 Billion Songs Identified

With the launch of iOS 14.2, Apple introduced a new Shazam Music Recognition toggle for the Control Center, giving iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users a quick and easy way to identify what music is playing.

shazam music recognition
Music Recognition has been a popular Control Center integration, and according to Apple, Shazam just surpassed 1 billion cumulative recognitions from the Control Center on iOS devices.

Compared to the standard Shazam app, Music Recognition is unique because it allows users to identify songs playing in their favorite apps, TV shows, and movies even while wearing headphones, a feature available in addition to the option to identify songs playing out loud.

The number one most Shazamed track from the Control Center is Bruno Mars' "Talking to the Moon," with a list of the top 10 Shazamed songs available below.

  • "Talking To The Moon" - Bruno Mars
  • "Astronaut In The Ocean" - Masked Wolf
  • "MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)" - Lil Nas X
  • "Beggin" - Måneskin
  • "Another Love" - Tom Odell
  • "Runaway" - AURORA
  • "Dick" - StarBoi3 Feat. Doja Cat
  • "Arcade" - Duncan Laurence
  • "Stay" - The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber
  • "drivers license" - Olivia Rodrigo

For those who do not already use Music Recognition, it can be added to the Control Center by opening up the Settings app and selecting the Control Center section. From there, scroll down and tap the "+" button next to the "Music Recognition" option that has the Shazam logo. Once added, users can access the Control Center and tap on the icon with the Shazam logo to identify a song that's playing.

Apple is improving Music Recognition in iOS 15 and going forward, it will automatically save a list of songs that users have discovered through the Control Center feature. The Music Recognition history can be viewed by long pressing on the Shazam Control Center icon on a device running iOS 15 or iPadOS 15.

Developers are also now able to take advantage of a ShazamKit API that allows Shazam's audio recognition technology to be integrated directly into apps, and the first apps with this functionality will launch this fall.

Tag: Shazam

Popular Stories

iOS 27 Next to iPhone

Here's When iOS 27 Rolls Out Around the World

Sunday September 13, 2026 3:00 am PDT by
Apple is about to release iOS 27, which will finally deliver more advanced Siri AI capabilities as well as a variety of other refinements, improvements, and new features to iPhones. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at Wednesday's iPhone event that it will be releasing iOS 27 sometime tomorrow – Monday, September 14. iOS 27 won't be the only release on...
iOS 27 Icon iPhone

iOS 27 Available Tomorrow With These 8 New Features

Sunday September 13, 2026 4:30 pm PDT by
During its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo event last week, Apple announced that iOS 27 will be released widely on Monday, September 14. iOS 27 should be available around 10 a.m. Pacific Time / 1 p.m. Eastern Time tomorrow via the Settings app, under General → Software Update. Below, we have highlighted eight new features and changes coming with iOS 27, with the main attraction being a...
deep black iphone 18 pro

Apple Says iPhone 18 Pro Max Sold in U.S. Differs in One Way

Saturday September 12, 2026 3:27 pm PDT by
As noted by Nicolas Lellouche, who writes for the French tech website Numerama, Apple has updated its tech specs pages for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max to clarify which models are equipped with its new C2 cellular modem and where. Apple now says the iPhone 18 Pro has a C2 modem worldwide, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max uses the chip in every country except for the U.S. According...

Top Rated Comments

65 months ago

Funny thing, I do have Shazam icon on my control center, and for some reason, when I need to quickly identify a song, I go to spotlight, search for the Shazam app, and launch the app. I completely ignore that Control Center button.
I removed my control center button, because it has no link to the app. It keeps no history and doesn’t save to a playlist.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Populus Avatar
65 months ago
Funny thing, I do have Shazam icon on my control center, and for some reason, when I need to quickly identify a song, I go to spotlight, search for the Shazam app, and launch the app. I completely ignore that Control Center button.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
65 months ago

I don't like you can’t try again later when their music database is updated like sound hound. Also I do a control center Shazam and later open the Shazam app and it has no history and I lost what I was searching for.
Thankfully iOS 15 fixes this. If you Haptic Touch on the icon on iOS 15, it opens a history of identified songs. I am on the beta currently and I have 20 songs identified in history so far.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JosephAW Avatar
65 months ago
I don't like you can’t try again later when their music database is updated like sound hound. Also I do a control center Shazam and later open the Shazam app and it has no history and I lost what I was searching for.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
65 months ago
Use this quite often. Shazam is fantastic.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
65 months ago

This inability to see search history makes the app as it currently stands worthless. I'm not going to go searching for songs AFTER the app has recognized it while in a social setting. If I don't do it then and there, the identification is lost. It's so dumb. Nice that the entire phone needs an update for this to function as well as it's acquired app from 10 years ago.
Shazam is great, hardly "worthless". all my shazams are in a history, just scroll through them in the order you shammed. Seriously, this complaint of yours is confusing. Sorry it is too complicated for you. Maybe there is another app that works better for you
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

🔗 Related Apple News & Rumors

Stay updated with the latest Apple ecosystem news and verified rumors