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Andy Walker \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n
TL;DR<\/p>\n
Google appears to be working on an expansion of Now Playing song-ID into a broader Audio Memory feature.
\nIn addition to recognizing songs both on and off your device, Audio Memory also teases the ability to track conversations.<\/p>\n
Pixel users already know just how convenient it is to have their phones always at the ready to help name that catchy tune you just can\u2019t place. Google just gave its song-ID tool a major upgrade with the release of Now Playing<\/a> as its own dedicated app, and now we\u2019re already checking out what could be the next phase of evolution for this powerful feature.<\/p>\n You\u2019re reading an Authority Insights<\/a> story. Authority Insights brings you all the latest exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage from the Android Authority team that you won\u2019t find anywhere else.<\/p>\n We\u2019re looking at a recent Android System Intelligence<\/a> update, where we\u2019re getting our first look at something apparently called \u201cAudio Memory.\u201d And while it sounds 99% like Now Playing, there\u2019s one quick reference that hints at some much broader functionality.<\/p>\n Take a look at some of the text strings we\u2019ve found connected to Audio Memory, here referenced via codename \u201cblueflax\u201d:<\/p>\n Code<\/p>\n Copy Text”Music recognition automatically identifies music using a song database on your device. If a song isn’t recognized, a short digital fingerprint may be sent to Google to securely search the cloud. Background conversations and audio are never sent to Google.
There\u2019s that direct reference to Now Playing, but pay close attention to the onboarding message for new users: \u201cKeep track of what you hear throughout your day, from the music around you to your important conversations.\u201d Right now, the solutions we have are all about identifying songs, while this sounds more like an AI note-taker app<\/a>.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve even been able to get a couple early screens to show up \u2014 but sadly, without any more details about the conversation-tracking component of Audio Memory:<\/p>\n So, we\u2019ve got the ability to identify ambient music, the ability to ID songs playing through other apps on your phone, and somewhere mixed in there, the possibility of this new tool for tracking important conversations. To say that we still have a lot of questions about how this will all work would be a bit of an understatement. The larger effort appears to be a repositioning of Google\u2019s song-ID tech as this Audio Memory backend.<\/p>\n Could the fact that we\u2019re only getting that one fleeting reference to conversation tracking be a hint that it\u2019s more of a future goal for Google, and might not end up being an initial component of Audio Memory? At this point, it\u2019s probably too soon to start speculating there, and right now we\u2019re mostly just looking forward to getting a look at these changes in action. For the moment, we\u2019ll just have to keep checking for further signs of development.<\/p>\n \u26a0\ufe0f An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.<\/p>\n
\nManually identifying a song uses a cloud search to provide better recognition and album artwork. Now Playing uses privacy-preserving analytics.
\nYou can control which apps Audio Memory can use to identify music.”
\nInfo about songs you play or hear in other apps displays in your music history
\nMusic on your device
\n“Find out what’s playing around you and on this device”
\nContinue
\nKeep track of what you hear throughout your day, from the music around you to your important conversations
\n“Find out what’s playing around you”
\nMusic recognition
\nWhat Audio Memory can do
\nKeep in mind
\n“Info about songs playing nearby displays on your device’s lock screen. To get more details, tap the name of the song or tap it again to open the Now Playing app.”
\nMusic around you
\nNo thanks
\nWelcome to Audio Memory
\nTurn on music recognition<\/p>\n