{"id":7028,"date":"2025-07-13T16:11:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T16:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/7028\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T16:11:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T16:11:05","slug":"google-pixels-now-playing-is-prepping-a-visual-overhaul-for-your-lock-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/7028\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Pixel’s Now Playing is prepping a visual overhaul for your lock screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now Playing on Google Pixel smartphones is a worthy addition that helps users detect music that’s playing around them, even without a manual trigger. However, as frequent users will tell you, it’s not always reliable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Setting that aside, Google has been working on bringing some key improvements to the feature, including a dedicated Quick Settings tile<\/a> for easier access away from the lock screen. We’re now gaining new info on Now Playing’s potential evolution on the lock screen.<\/p>\n

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Related<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tHow to find your Now Playing history on your Google Pixel
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Never forget that song you heard ever again<\/p>\n

While going through a recent Android System Intelligence update, the folks over at Android Authority<\/a> caught a glimpse at how Google intends to bring Now Playing’s album artwork to the lock screen. As you would imagine, it takes more space than the existing text-only layout, though it’s certainly a step up from a visual perspective.<\/p>\n

A much-needed upgrade to Now Playing<\/p>\n

Now Playing’s text-only interface (left); The updated interface with album art and Favorite button (middle and right) [via Android Authority]<\/p>\n

Screenshots show the extent of the album artwork’s width on the screen, while there’s also a shortcut for Favorites towards the right-hand side of this field. As for its behavior, Android Authority reports that Now Playing will default to the text-only interface, while tapping the identified song once will activate the album artwork.<\/p>\n

This is a good way to ensure people who are adjusted to the existing system of Now Playing don’t lose that old behavior. However, it’s a bit of a bummer for some Pixel owners (like me) who are accustomed to the current interface, wherein a single tap of the identified song redirects users to their Now Playing history.<\/p>\n

It’s unclear whether this evolution of Now Playing will allow users to alternate between the text-only version and the one with album artwork, as things can get a bit cramped on the lock screen. Nevertheless, given how Now Playing has remained largely unchanged over the past couple of years, a visual overhaul like this could ensure more people use it.<\/p>\n

In a separate report over the past few days, Android Authority uncovered another potential update to Now Playing, courtesy of Android Canary<\/a>, featuring a dedicated lock screen shortcut. So it looks like Now Playing is in for a couple of key improvements, although exactly when (or if) these features will go live is unknown.<\/p>\n

What do you make of these potential upgrades to Pixel’s Now Playing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now Playing on Google Pixel smartphones is a worthy addition that helps users detect music that’s playing around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[165,74],"class_list":["post-7028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}