Apple has built in a new music feature on the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 that allows Shazam to automatically recognize music playing in the background. Once a song is detected, the title and artist immediately appear in the Smart Stack, so you can see the song at a glance without having to open a button first.
The feature works via Apple’s Audio Intelligence and is intended for fast, shiny recognition from your wrist. On supported models, music recognition is available as standard in the Smart Stack, while on other Apple Watch models you still have to manually tap the Shazam button in the widget to have a song recognized.
How does automatic music recognition work?
Apple has integrated the well-known Shazam technology directly into the system of the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4. Thanks to the more efficient hardware and the Always Onprocessor, the smartwatch continuously listens to ambient sounds in the background without compromising battery life. As soon as the watch catches a recognizable music track, the Shazam widget is automatically placed at the top of the Smart Stack.
- Turn the Digital Crown up or swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the Smart Stack.
- At the top of the stack you will immediately see the current song with the artist name.
- Tap the plus button in the widget to save the song directly to your Shazam history
- Tap the widget to play the song via Apple Music or add it to one of your playlists.
Enable or disable the feature
Although the feature is very useful, you may prefer to turn off automatic detection; for example for privacy reasons or to prevent unnecessary notifications in your Smart Stack.
Via the Apple Watch:
- Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
- Scroll down and tap Smart Stack.
- Enable the option Music detection out or in
This is also possible via the connected iPhone; open the Apple Watch app and go to the ‘My Watch’ tab. Then tap Smart Stack to then Music detection on or off.
Analyzes environmental sounds and privacy
The automatic music recognition on the Apple Watch analyzes ambient sounds in the background without recording or saving your conversations. The watch locally converts sound signals into a temporary, digital ‘fingerprint’ to recognize music patterns.
Only when there is a match with a number, this anonymous code is compared with Shazam’s database. Spoken text and voices are ignored by the algorithm and immediately overwritten, so audio files from your environment are never retained on the device or on Apple servers.
Use music recognition manually with Shazam
Have you turned off automatic detection, or are you wearing an older Apple Watch model? Then you can of course still consult Shazam manually.
- Via the Smart Stack: Open the Smart Stack, find the Shazam widget and tap the Shazam icon once to start a measurement.
- Via the Music Recognition app: Open the app grid view on your watch, tap the Music Recognition app (the Shazam icon) and tap the big button to scan the area.
- Via Siri: You can also press and hold the Digital Crown at any time or shout “Hey Siri” and ask: “What song is this?”
Any songs recognized automatically or manually will be synced to your Shazam history and Control Center on your iPhone, so you’ll never lose your discovered songs again.
Prices and delivery times fluctuate widely. Immediately view the current stock and promotions:
