Update to Shazam allows users to multitask while the app does its thing

Music discovery app Shazam has been updated to version 17.11 today for the Apple iPhone and Apple iPad Shazam apps. Thanks to the update, Shazam will now continue to multitask and run even if you're using another app. In other words, Shazam will continue to work in the background finding information about a song even while you're running another app. You can even use Shazam to identify a song playing on another app.

While Shazam is listening in the background, you'll see the Shazam icon appear in the Dynamic Island and the results will be displayed via Live Activities on the iPhone. Among other improvements, Shazam now will listen longer before it decides that it cannot name a specific tune, and, with the update, Shazam can now identify classical music. The new features are available for iPhones running iOS 15 or later, and iPads running iPadOS 15 or later. The Apple Vision Pro spatial computer uses the iPad version of the app.

The Shazam app is available for free from the App Store. You might not have realized that the app is owned by Apple which announced a $400 million deal to buy it in December 2017 although the deal did not close for another nine months. At the time it announced the transaction, Apple said that it had "exciting plans in store" for Shazam. For the most part, iPhone users are still waiting.

To make sure that your Shazam app is toggled on for Live Activities, go to Settings > Shazam (you must have the app installed first!) and toggle on Live Activities. When you get a notification about a song via Shazam's Live Activities, tap on the notification and you'll get the full Shazam page for the song which shows you the name of the album the tune is on, allows you to listen to the full song, view videos related to the song, and hear audio of songs that are similar to the one you had Shazam discover.

Here's how this works. Let's say you hear a tune you want to know more about, but you're also in the middle of reading an important story for work on a news app. You open the Shazam app, tap on the Shazam icon, and return to the app for work. The Dynamic Island will alert you that Shazam is on the job and will notify you via Live Activities when it has come up with the name of the song.