Update to Shazam makes the app more useful

It is hard to believe that nearly four years have passed since Apple paid a reported $400 million for the music recognition app Shazam. Whether this was a move made by Apple to compete with the Pixel's Now Playing feature is unknown. At the time that the deal was announced, Apple said that it " has exciting plans for Shazam which was one of the first apps in the App Store.

Apple did add Shazam to the iOS Control Center in iOS 14.2, which is not really exciting. In iOS 14, Apple added a feature allowing Shazam to recognize music playing inside an app. Again, excitement is in the eye of the beholder and we're not sure that this would qualify as such. But today, 9to5Mac noticed that Shazam had received an update that will, according to the release notes, allow the app to listen "longer" and "harder."

Apple says that by working harder, Shazam will find more songs. The company stated, "Shazam now finds more songs by trying harder, for longer. Tap to Shazam to give it a go." While Shazam is supposed to be able to match just a few seconds of a song with that tune's title, sometimes the app can be stumped at first and that is why hearing just some additional seconds of a tune could make the difference between being unable to learn the name of that song you just heard or Shazam finding out the name of that song you can't get out of your head, and the artist.

You might have been unaware that Apple offers a widget for Shazam. Depending on which size widget you choose, you could see up to four songs recently discovered by Shazam. To add the widget, long-press on an empty space on your iPhone screen. That puts the phone into "jiggle mode."

While in "jiggle mode," tap the "+" button in the top-left corner and search for the Shazam widget which showed up first when we looked for the widget (see accompanying photo). Select which size widget you want and tap on "Add Widget."

Apple is currently running a promotion now through January 31st. Simply visit this website and use the camera on your iPhone to scan the QR code and redeem the offer. The five free months are available to new Apple Music subscribers only.

The Shazam app is also available for the Apple Watch.