HomePod’s strand of Siri has its limitations, but its music features are pretty robust. You can actually use the Shazam song identification features on HomePod, you just need to know the right request phrase for Siri.
For quite a while now, Siri has been able to listen to and detect music playing from nearby sources courtesy of the integration of the wildly successful app Shazam. It has also become a lot smarter and seamless in terms of the process, and a quick request as simple as Hey Siri, what’s that song? Will often yield the answer you were looking for. Apple devices have long been able to recognize songs through Shazam, but doing so at the current time requires asking Siri to identify a song or opening up the Shazam app for iOS devices.
The HomePod uses its microphones to listen to the environment and Shazam will try to find a match for the song. You can then get the HomePod to play the song straight from Apple Music. Here’s how to use Shazam on HomePod …
On an iPhone or iPad, you can say something like ‘what song is this?’ and if music isn’t actively playing in an app, Siri will know your intent to mean ‘what song is playing in the real world right now’ and start listening for Shazam results.
On HomePod, I think these same phrases are supposed to work. However, because the HomePod is almost always playing tracks, asking Siri on HomePod ‘what song is this?’ will just tell you about the song that the device is currently playing.
Luckily, there’s an easy way to unambiguously get Siri to use Shazam. Just walk over to your HomePod and say ‘Hey Siri, Shazam this’.
The HomePod will then say something to the effect of ‘I’m listening’. After a few seconds, as long as it can hear the song in the room, it will reply by saying ‘It sounds like [song name] by [artist]’.
Siri Shazam History
What’s really nice is that the HomePod will remember the context for the follow up. With a successful match, you can then say ‘Hey Siri, play it’. It will then start playing the matched track from your library or from Apple Music, assuming you are subscribed.
I tested this just by holding up my iPhone playing a track from YouTube and it worked perfectly. Thanks to the array of microphones inside HomePod, you don’t have to be super close to it either.
In party situations, this is kind of a handy feature to know about if you just want to get a certain track playing from someone else’s device that doesn’t necessarily have an iPhone or isn’t streaming from Apple Music.
Using Shazam is probably the quickest way to go from watching a VEVO music video from YouTube on your phone to playing the song on the HomePod.
Apple is currently in the process of acquiring Shazam and I bet song identification features become a bigger part of the Apple Music story in the coming years.
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Siri Shazam History
Shazam identifies a song by creating a unique digital fingerprint to match what you’re hearing with one of the millions of songs in the Shazam database.
Use the Shazam app
If you have the Shazam app installed on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, you can use the app to identify music and save them to your library.
- Open the Shazam app on your device.
- Tap or click the Shazam button to identify what’s playing around you.
When Shazam identifies the song, it’s saved in My Music, along with all your other previous Shazams.
After you identify a song, you can connect to Apple Music and other music services to listen to your Shazam.
If you don’t have an internet connection, the app still creates a unique digital fingerprint to match against the Shazam database the next time your device is connected to the internet. If a song can’t be identified, it will disappear from your pending Shazams.
Use Auto Shazam
To have Shazam automatically identify what’s playing around you, touch and hold (or double-click on Mac) the Shazam button . When Auto Shazam is on, Shazam matches what you’re hearing with songs in the Shazam database—even when you switch to another app. Shazam never saves or stores what it hears.
You can then find the Shazams identified with Auto Shazam in My Music, grouped together by date.
To turn off Auto Shazam, tap or click the Shazam button.
Use Shazam in Control Center on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
You can Shazam songs right from Control Center on your iPhone or on your iPad.* To add Shazam to Control Center, go to Settings > Control Center, then tap the Add button next to Music Recognition.
To identify songs from Control Center, tap the Shazam button to identify what's currently playing on your device or around you. Shazam can identify songs playing on your device even if you're using headphones.
* Requires iOS or iPad OS 14.2 or later.
More ways to identify music
- On iPhone or iPad, say “Hey Siri,” then ask what the song is.
- On iPhone or iPad, add the Shazam widget to identify music in the Today View.
- Use Shazam on your Apple Watch to Shazam tracks.
- To identify music from the menu bar of your Mac, get Shazam for Mac from the Mac App Store.
- On HomePod, say “Hey Siri, Shazam this song.”
- Use the Shazam It action to add music recognition to your Shortcuts.
See your previous Shazams
You can see your previous Shazams in the Shazam app on your device and online when you create a Shazam account.
- On iPhone or iPad, swipe up on the main Shazam screen to access My Music.
- On Mac, recent Shazams appear below the Shazam button.
- On Apple Watch, recent Shazams appear below the Shazam button, and are also saved to My Music on the paired iPhone.
- To access your Shazams on your other Apple devices and online at shazam.com/myshazam, you can save your Shazams in iCloud. This also ensures that you won't lose your Shazams if something happens to your device.
Change your settings
In the Shazam app, swipe up to My Music from the main Shazam screen, then tap the Settings button to adjust Shazam settings:
- Control Notifications from Shazam.
- To have Shazam automatically start listening when the app is opened, turn on “Shazam on app start.”
- Use iCloud to back up your Shazams.
Microphone settings on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Shazam needs access to the microphone on your device to hear what you're listening to. On iPhone or iPad, open Settings, scroll down to the installed apps and tap Shazam, then turn on Microphone. If you don’t see an option for Microphone, you might have restrictions turned on for Privacy settings.
Get help
Use Shazam On Computer
Learn more
Shazam Siri Shortcut
- Use Shazam on Android devices.
- You can create a Shazam account to keep track of all your Shazams and view them on www.shazam.com/myshazam.
- In addition to Apple Music, you can connect Shazam to other services like Snapchat and Spotify.
- Learn about Shazam's Terms & Conditions.
- Learn about Shazam and privacy.