Shazam is the go-to app for identifying a song playing—you simply hold your phone near the sound, and Shazam quickly recognizes the track for you. Apple acquired Shazam in 2018, removing ads for all users and integrating the service with Siri for quick song identification. Yet, nearly seven years later, that’s still all you can do through the system.
The service offers far more than what Apple has built into its operating system, making it feel like an afterthought—even though it could offer much more if it were more deeply integrated.
Shazam History Should Be Accessible in Apple Music
Right now, you can add the Shazam music-identifying widget to Control Center for quick access whenever you want to know the name of a song playing. You don’t need to download the native app, and when you tap on the song when it’s recognized, you’re taken to a screen where you can open it in Apple Music.
However, that’s about as far as integration goes. While recognizing a song and linking to it in Apple Music might be enough for some users, it falls short in terms of long-term functionality.
For instance, once you swipe away from the song information screen, there’s no way to view a history of songs you’ve previously Shazamed. This can be frustrating—especially if you miss the notification with the song title—forcing you to Shazam the song again.
It would make sense to integrate Shazam history directly into Apple Music, since that’s where users will most likely go to play the songs they’ve identified. Not including Shazam listening history natively within the operating system misses a key opportunity for reengagement and further music discovery.
For many, being able to Shazam a song through Siri or the Control Center widget may be enough. Yet, if you want to see recommendations for songs similar to one you Shazamed or see your Shazam history, you still need the native app to be installed.
No Automatic Playlist Sync
Accessing your Shazam history would be great inside Apple Music, and having all those songs in a playlist automatically would be great, too. Unfortunately, that is not currently available in its current state of what’s integrated into the operating system.
Just like when you Shazam a song, it gives you an information card about it after it recognizes it, and then can take you to the track in Apple Music. After that, nothing is automatically done unless you manually add it to a playlist.
Putting all the songs you’ve Shazamed into one playlist would make accessing them—and your history—easier and more organized than jumping between different apps. Everything would be in one place, automatically updated each time you Shazam a new song.
This could work similarly to how TikTok allows you to add songs to your Apple Music library. When you hear and see a song being used as a sound on a video within the app, you can tap on it, and at the top, it allows you to add it to your Apple Music library.
When you tap that, it automatically adds the song to a playlist—either a new one if it’s your first time adding, or an existing one if you’ve added songs before—and you can access it from there. It’s simple, convenient, and seems to be reliable when done.
Now, Shazam does offer this type of feature, but—like accessing your Shazam history—you need to download the native app. Once you do and turn on adding Shazamed songs automatically to your library, every song you ask to be recognized will be added to this playlist titled “My Shazam Tracks.”
While helpful and easy to set up, it would be great if this feature were automatically incorporated into Apple’s operating system. There would be no need to download another app; just have the feature automatically activate after Shazming a song. You could find it in the Music app settings if you want to turn it off.
Having a playlist filled with all the songs you’ve Shazamed is an excellent and easy-to-use feature, but you shouldn’t need yet another app to access it. If the middleman were removed and the connection between Shazam and Apple Music were built directly into the system, this feature would likely see much wider use.
Lack of Contextual Suggestions on the Song You Shazamed
Identifying songs is the main reason people use Shazam, but there should be more after the song is identified. This especially applies after asking Siri or using the Control Center widget.
When you tap on the notification after a song is identified, it brings you to an information page on the song. Yet, it would be nice to get similar songs like it or curated playlists surrounding the songs to open discovery to new music.
Additionally, getting additional information on the artist’s discography and any upcoming releases from the same screen would be helpful instead of going through extra menus. This would expand exposure to the artist of the song you Shazamed.
If you want to add the song to a specific playlist or your library, you can tap the three dots in the screen’s upper-right corner. However, these options are hidden if you didn’t already know they existed. These actions would be much more intuitive to appear directly beneath the “Open in Apple Music” button.
Expanding the song information page to include recommendations to similar tracks or additional music by the same artist would also be a valuable addition. This would give users everything they need—discovery, context, and action—in one place, without requiring them to navigate multiple menus.
Missing Additional Shazam Features
While Shazam is an excellent tool for recognizing different songs on the fly, the service also offers additional features. Yet, you wouldn’t know they existed without downloading the app.
One of those features is Auto Shazam, which keeps Shazam listening in the background and automatically recognizes, saves, and adds the song to your Shazam history without you needing to lift a finger. This is convenient to use when you’re out and want to know the songs being played around you, either in a store or at a public event.
It would be great to toggle this within the Control Center widget. You would just need to hold down on it and select “Turn On Auto Shazam. ” Then, your device would constantly listen to and add songs to your Shazam playlist until you turn it off.
Additionally, Shazam analyzes your music history and offers concerts near your location or that fit your music taste. Within that section, you can see the dates and venues a specific artist is playing at, add it to your calendar, and be linked to the show on Ticketmaster.
This is all great information, but wouldn’t this work better in the Apple Music app? Apple Music features are already integrated into the Shazam app, but the inverse isn’t true.
Apple introduced Set List playlists for artists currently on tour last October, and it would be a great addition to see more information about a concert within that section. It would also allow people interested in the setlist to easily link to tickets for the show without needing to leave the app.
The Shazam app already includes a lot of information about artists’ tours, and while it offers access to playlists, songs, and more, it would be even more helpful for this information to flow the other way. Apple Music should also display tour details directly on the artist’s page or at the bottom of their Set List playlist.
No Replay or Algorithm Influence
Apple releases its annual Apple Music Replay to give you an overview of your year in music. This includes information on your top artist, song, playlist, album, and genre.
Another source of information that could be cool to include would be information on the songs you have Shazamed over the past year. This could consist of your most Shazamed genre, artist, or songs from an album.
This statistic would only be shown during the year-end Apple Music Replay recap instead of the monthly ones—unless you’re someone who Shazams songs frequently. It would offer another layer of insight into the music that grabs your attention throughout the year and could encourage you to explore more music similar to the tracks highlighted in the stats.
With this information, Apple Music could also incorporate the songs you frequently Shazam into its algorithm to recommend new music based on that history. This could include integrating the data into the tailored New Music playlist or introducing a new playlist titled “Based on What You’ve Shazamed.”
All in all, you can always look at your Shazam history and make your judgments, but seeing that data visualized in a fun way through Apple Music Replay—or getting a curated playlist based on the songs you’ve Shazamed—would give more meaning to the act. It would make Shazaming a song feel like it has a lasting impact beyond just identifying what’s currently playing.
Wasted Potential Between Siri and Shazam
As it’s already known, you can use Siri to Shazam songs by asking what song is playing. However, with Siri and Apple Intelligence, things could be better.
One way Siri could be improved is by allowing users to take action with music using just their voice. For example, commands like “Shazam this song and add it to my library” or “Shazam this song and add it to my Favorites Mix” would give you more control over what happens after identifying a song.
It would ultimately streamline the process, making Siri more powerful and the Shazam integration more meaningful.
Another way Siri could be improved with Shazam information is by asking what song you previously Shazamed. Since the app knows the location where you Shazamed a song, you could say, “What was the song I Shazamed at Walmart this afternoon?” On the other hand, you could simply ask, “Show me all the songs I Shazamed today.”
While Siri improvements have yet to roll out across Apple’s operating systems since their WWDC 2024 unveiling, this addition could easily align with Apple’s vision for a more intelligent, app-integrated Siri. Just as the new Siri is expected to pull up a photo of your glasses prescription or surface a specific email, it should also be able to access your Shazam history or add identified songs directly to your library or a playlist.
Expanding Siri’s capabilities to handle these tasks would make it feel more like a music assistant than a song identifier. It would give the virtual assistant a more meaningful purpose in music discovery and make navigating your Shazam history more intuitive.
Shazam has already been incorporated into Apple’s operating systems across devices, but the integration is shallow. It can recognize songs and guide you to them in Apple Music, but it misses out on some great features Shazam offers unless you download the native app.
Apple owns Shazam, and it’s been years since the acquisition, so it’s about time the company integrated more of its features into its operating systems. Additionally, with the promise of Apple Intelligence upgrades to Siri, utilizing information from Shazam could be game-changing for music discoverers.