Owners of Google Pixel smartphones get to experience a handful of exclusive features, with Now Playing being one of them. This feature automatically identifies songs playing around you, with all these songs then appearing on a dedicated Now Playing history page.
A dedicated Favorites tab offers instant access to all the songs you’ve liked, providing enough separation between songs you actually like and those that Now Playing has identified in the background. It now seems like a bug has led to the disappearance of the Favorites tab, thereby breaking a core element of the Pixel’s song identification feature.
The folks at 9to5Google were the first to report on the Favorites tab’s removal, with the issue seemingly related to the version B.13 update of Android System Intelligence. Since Now Playing is run through Android System Intelligence (a system app), any unintended changes can potentially break functionality in one or many services it powers.
Just another annoying bug in a Google-run service
Now Playing history’s former design (left and middle); Updated Now Playing history page without the Favorites tab (right)
The good news is that Google hasn’t deliberately removed the Favorites tab from Now Playing history. 9to5Google notes that its disappearance could be due to a bug with the aforementioned Android System Intelligence update. This won’t come as a surprise to many, considering Now Playing’s history with bugs.
While the Favorites tab has completely disappeared from view, including on my Pixel device, users can still tap the heart icon from the lock screen interface or the notification that appears each time a song is identified. There’s just no way to view the songs you’ve marked under Favorites.
Users can view all the songs detected via Now Playing by navigating to Settings > Sound & vibration > Now Playing > Now Playing history. Alternatively, you can tap the lock screen shortcut or the notification that pops up when a song is identified.
This may not be a dealbreaker for many, though it could be inconvenient for users who rely solely on their Pixel’s Now Playing functionality to identify songs playing around them.
Now Playing isn’t a feature that gets discussed a lot in the context of Pixel phones. However, we’ve seen evidence recently of Google wanting to give it a bit of a refresh. Reports have suggested that Now Playing could become a standalone app, possibly hinting at support for non-Pixel devices in the future. A redesign of the Now Playing’s lock screen interface is in the works, though we don’t yet have a definitive timeline for its rollout.
