Shazam finally supports iOS 16's hottest new feature a year after it was released

(Image credit: Matthew Cassinelli)

On the eve of iOS 17 being released to the public Apple's Shazam app has now been updated to add support for one of the iOS 16 update's biggest new features.

The feature, support for Lock Screen widgets on the iPhone, is one that was heavily promoted by Apple in September of 2022 and became a foundational feature for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. But despite Apple owning the music recognition app Shazam, the app has only just released an update that adds support for Lock Screen widgets.

With the new feature added, Shazam users can now identify songs right from their Iphone's Lock Screen without additional taps necessary — like finding and then opening the app on their Home Screen.

Music to 2022's ears

The new Lock Screen widgets are available as part of the latest Shazam update, downloadable via the App Store for all those who already have the app installed. Don't yet have Shazam? You can get it yourself now, and it's completely free.

As for what the new feature can offer, Shazam's App Store release notes say that people "You can now open Shazam and identify songs directly from your lock screen with our Lock Screen Widget. Or, try our wider widget, which displays the last song you identified."

You don't need the best iPhones to use this new feature, either. Sure, the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max have always-on displays that make Lock Screen widgets even more accessible. But they can also be used on other iPhones — you just have to wake the phone's display before you can see them.

Shazam now has Lock Screen widgets that allows you to identify songs! pic.twitter.com/ud4CDuJBgCAugust 22, 2023

This will of course also be the case when the new iPhones arrive this September, too. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will support Lock Screen widgets via iOS 17, but the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will be the only models that support an always-on Lock Screen.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.