This is my favorite music feature for iPhones (that is often forgotten)

Every few years I’m reminded that my iPhone can instantly identify the names of songs playing around me. So if you’re constantly wondering what song is playing in public or on a TV show, consider adding the Shazam button to your iPhone’s Control Center so you can use it to quickly identify songs.

A forgotten music feature

Using Shazam (without downloading an app) to listen to and identify songs is an old trick, but it remains one of my favorites. To enable it on an iPhone, you can either ask Siri what song is playing or press the Shazam button in Control Center.

Once you perform one of these actions, the phone will start listening. Once it identifies the song, a notification will appear with the artist and the name of the song, along with a link that opens a window with more information. From there, you can open the song in Apple Music, share it, and get more information about the artist.

If you swipe down from the top right of your iPhone and don’t see the Shazam icon (an S in a circle) in Control Center, you can add it by going to Settings and then Control Center.

If you recognize a song but don’t know what to do with it, you can always come back to it later. To view your history of previously recognized songs, press and hold the Shazam icon in Control Center. A list of songs will appear.

More ways to listen to music on an iPhone

Accessing the Shazam feature through Siri or Control Center is basically the way to use it, but there are many more tricks to keep the feature at your fingertips at all times.

If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max, you can assign the “Detect Music” shortcut to the Action button. Every time you press this button, music will start playing.

Any iPhone running iOS 16 and above can add a Shortcut widget to the lock screen and then assign it to the same “Detect Music” shortcut.

In iOS 18, coming later this year, it will be possible to replace the lock screen’s previously permanent flashlight and camera icons, so there will be another place, front and center, to identify songs and learn what’s playing around you.

Of course, you can also go the traditional route and download the Shazam app, which gives you some additional features, such as automatically adding songs to a playlist or connecting to a Spotify account.