Music recognition app Shazam can now identify the songs you are listening to even when you are wearing headphones. The new feature, dubbed Pop-up Shazam, was added to the latest Android version of the service this week. Techcrunch was first to spot the new feature.
Headphone monitoring is not available in Shazam’s iOS app, and it may not launch on iPhones for some time: Apple restricts the use of background apps, making it currently impossible for Shazam to stay active when let other apps are running in the foreground.
When activated in the Android app, Pop-up Shazam can either work in split-screen mode, or as a pop-up overlay similar to the way Facebook Messenger appears on top of another Android app. The feature can be useful to identify the songs playing in the background of a YouTube app, for instance.
The fact that Shazam would offer this feature on Android first is a bit ironic: Apple acquired Shazam for $400 million in late 2017.