Google’s Pixel is Getting a Now Playing App

Wouldn’t it be cool if the Now Playing service on your Pixel phone had its own app that could get new features more regularly and was easily updatable for Google? That could happen in the very near future.

Spotted within version B.21 of Android System Intelligence, which currently powers Now Playing, Google is preparing a new notification that will soon pop-up and ask you to upgrade and “Download the new Now Playing app.” 9to5Google noticed a string that will push the new app on users and it should have a shortcut to go to the Play Store for a quick download.

Google will refer to this as Now Playing’s “new home” and referred to it as, “Your settings, song history, and other features can be found in the dedicated app.” That sounds neat.

For those not familiar, Now Playing is one of the best features built into the Google Pixel line. It’s sort of an always-listening music finder that’ll showcase music playing near you, all without you needing to ask it to identify the song. It has history you can browse through, options to save favorites, and even set a default music player to quickly launch songs from history in your favorite music app. It’s so great.

You might be able to find it on Google Play (here) once it’s live.