Apple-watch/">Apple Watch can identify music playing nearby without requiring users to start a search. The Music Recognition feature uses Shazam to detect songs that are audible around the wearer, even when they are not playing through the watch.
The feature is part of Apple’s Audio Intelligence tools in iOS 27. Once a song is identified, its title and artist appear in the Smart Stack. Users can also save it to their Shazam history or Apple Music library with a tap.
Music Recognition requires an Apple Watch Series 12 or Apple Watch Ultra 4 paired with an iPhone 11 or later, or an iPhone SE (2nd generation) or later, running iOS 27. To check for a song, users can swipe up from the watch face or turn the Digital Crown upward to open the Smart Stack and view the Music Recognition widget.
The feature can be enabled when its widget first appears. If automatic detection is not active, users can open Settings on the Apple Watch, select Smart Stack and turn on Music Detection. Older Apple Watch models can still identify songs manually through the Music Recognition app, but do not support the automatic Smart Stack feature.
Apple says the process does not record or store audio. Sound is handled in a protected buffer in the device’s Secure Exclave, and only an acoustic signature that cannot be reversed into the original audio is sent to Shazam’s servers for identification.
Sources: MacRumors.