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‘Siri, what song is this?’ The iOS 8 GM doesn’t have a clue, but it’s coming back next week

Remember when Apple announced during WWDC that Siri in iOS 8 would be getting several cool new features, including the ability to figure out what song is playing with a music recognition engine powered by Shazam? In the recent GM build of iOS 8, the feature has been removed completely. Apple notes that it should be back in time for the general public release of the OS, however.

In earlier betas, Siri would automatically start listening for music when invoked, and identify anything playing. This approach proved to be a bit counterproductive, as the software would often misinterpret air conditioners, wind, or a sneeze in the background as music and keep trying to identify it even after the user had finished issuing a command.

[tweet https://twitter.com/ChristopoulosZ/status/509817977538379776 align=’center’]

To resolve that, later betas removed the automatic listening mode and required the use of a command such as “what song is this?” However, in the GM build (which by definition is identical to the one that will ship to all users next week), the feature is totally non-functional. Asking “what song is playing” or similar will attempt to ID the song playing from the user’s library, which often results in a response of “You’re not listening to anything right now.”

[tweet https://twitter.com/Jamie367p/status/509819859589685248 align=’center’]

Why the feature was removed in the GM build is a bit of a mystery when it seemed to work perfectly fine when triggered by a voice command. Other new Siri features, like “Hey Siri” mode, are still available in this version. It’s possible this could just be due to some sort of bug that went undetected or a server-side issue that will be resolved before the official release.

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Comments

  1. Could it not be waiting for a shazam update, maybe they phone needs to have shazam installed (and a ios 8 compatible version) Makes sense to me.

    Btw, I updated to iOS 8, background did not change..

    • No I checked its removed. I have shazam installed and nothing.

    • Computer_Whiz123 - 10 years ago

      are you a dev?

      because iOS 8 won’t be released until the 17th…

      • Max Mars (@devianter) - 10 years ago

        who cares, it’s free. man, so many self important people on this site, it’s sickening. what’s wrong with just downloading it? what harm are you making? are you stealing? or do you simply want to feel about yourself as of some sort of an elite geek developer?

      • Computer_Whiz123 - 10 years ago

        No I was just asking as I thought that only Dev’s could get iOS 8…

      • Andrew Messenger - 10 years ago

        would it make any difference at all if he’s a developer? i’m just curious about the point you’re trying to make by asking.

      • Computer_Whiz123 - 10 years ago

        He just mentioned having iOS 8 (hasn’t been released yet), and I thought only developers could get prerelease builds of iOS 8.

      • Michael Li - 10 years ago

        You better change your name from “Computer_Whiz” to something else…

        There are ways to get iOS8 without being a developer. Youtube it.

  2. herb02135go - 10 years ago

    Hey Siri sounds identical to OK Google, which I use now.

  3. Jason Smith - 10 years ago

    From the GM Release Notes:

    Siri

    Known Issue
    Shazam with Siri and Purchase iTunes Content with Siri are not functional in the GM seed. They will be available once iOS 8 is released to the general public

  4. newgirl2033 - 10 years ago

    A few weeks ago, Siri stopped responding to the “flights overhead” query. Siri operates on an Apple server, not the iOS device, so changes in the service don’t always come from missing software on the phone. Apple may have killed the service until iOS 8’s public release for a myriad of reasons, only one of which is that it has been removed completely.

    See: that’s how you report things in a non-sensationalist, non-biased manner. Is that really so hard?

  5. Joojin Abaoag - 10 years ago

    Hey guys calm down. In the iOS changelog, it says
    “Shazam with Siri and Purchase iTunes Content with Siri are not functional in the GM seed. They will be available once iOS 8 is released to the general public”

    • Andy - 10 years ago

      Does that mean we’ll need to install the public iOS 8 release?

  6. Just saying that I love this article’s title! :P

  7. Yun Kut3 - 10 years ago

    How comeeee

  8. Tristan Stelzer - 10 years ago

    FINALLY!!!!!!! Since about the 5th beta, Shazam wouldn’t work for me. Now it’s everyone else too >U<

  9. iOS dev here, my iPhone, currently running Beta 5, says its up-to-date every time I check it?

    • Scott Bailey - 10 years ago

      um you cant apply GM over a beta without iTunes. OTA does not work for GM or any other released version if you have a previous beta installed.

  10. You have to say “can you identify this song” first to activate shazam in siri.

  11. jdc866 - 9 years ago

    Use “Shazam this song.” Works perfectly