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Pixel's Now Playing is about to get its lost feature back, and we saw the proof
Aug 31, 2026 — 11:08 AM ET
- Google updated the Now Playing app with subtle interface tweaks.
- It’s also moving closer to restoring Now Playing notifications, which it removed earlier this year.
- We have spotted Now Playing’s upcoming support for secondary user accounts on Pixel devices.
- Beyond that, a sync feature for Now Playing history is in the works.
Now Playing is a Pixel-exclusive feature with few haters, but Google managed to rile up users when it refashioned it as a separate app this March. The supposed upgrade broke key functionality for users, including the ability to sync tracks with third-party services like Last.fm.
Now the app is getting a new update with certain functionality tweaks — and the bigger promise of getting lost features back.
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What’s already here
First, let’s address the changes that are coming to Now Playing for all users. The three-dot button alongside tracks in history now opens a sheet that slides up from the bottom of the screen. Previously, it opened a floating context menu.
Alongside the menu, the app now also displays a card reminding users that if they can’t find a song with Now Playing, they can always fall back to searching tracks with that Google Search feature that lets you sing or hum a song.
All of these features are now available to all Pixel users with version 2026.08.27.972147369.0 of the Now Playing app.
What’s coming next
Now, coming to features that Google has been working on but hasn’t released yet. Last week, we discovered that Google was working to bring back Now Playing’s notifications while also adding support for multiple users. While we spotted cues in code, we couldn’t get it to work at the time. But with this latest version, we’ve been able to activate the features by fiddling with the app, even though they aren’t live for everyone just yet.
For starters, we were able to trigger notifications from Now Playing, displaying the current track. The notification also has buttons to add a track to favorites or view history, just like before.
The standalone Now Playing app could also get the option to turn off notifications from within the app. But to receive notifications, users will need to enable them in the Android System Intelligence app.
Additionally, we were able to trigger Now Playing for secondary users on the Pixel device. While Now Playing is currently only available to primary users on the device, Google is working to bring the feature to others too, and we now have a glimpse of how it could function for those secondary users.
Beyond these two features, Google is also working on letting Pixel users sync their Now Playing history. Google is working on a “History synchronization” toggle that could show up in Now Playing’s notification settings.
Although it looks like an option to enable notifications for syncing history across devices or to Google Drive, we suspect it might have a different function — and purpose. That’s because we don’t see a mention of “Drive,” “cloud,” or “backup” in associated code. Here’s what we see instead:
<string name="sync_notification_channel_name">History synchronization</string>
<string name="sync_notification_text">Check back in a few minutes to find your history here</string>
<string name="sync_notification_title">Your music history is syncing…</string>Based on these descriptions, we suspect it might be a fix for previous complaints around Now Playing history not loading fully. When this glitch was reported, Google said any missing history can take up to 24 hours to repopulate, and this notification may ensure the app keeps working in the background and loads history for users.
We can’t say whether this is exactly how it will be, but that’s a hunch based on the code above.
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