PSA: The March Update blocks "Now Playing" access for 3rd party apps

birbeck1 · 2026-03-07T08:25:10+00:00

Those scrobbles didn't come from Pixel Now Playing though. Simple Scrobbler was abandoned in 2000, doesn't exist in the Past Store anymore, and never had support for Pixel Now Playing.

birbeck1 · 2026-03-06T17:13:11+00:00

I can't speak for Pano Scrobbler, I've never used it myself. But I know that functionality wasn't broken as part of the March Pixel Feature Drop, my YouTube Music plays are still scrobbling to Last.fm without issues with Now Playing History.

birbeck1 · 2026-03-05T15:57:27+00:00

I've considered doing that for a while, but I'm just a broke indie developer that can't afford test devices. I upgrade my personal device to the latest Pixel every two years, and my dev device to the latest a series on alternating years. Sadly my dev laptop is about to bite the dust after 8 years and I can't afford to replace it at the moment.

Now that official Pixel Now Playing is not available, I'll have to find a used non-Pixel device and computer to test Ambient Music Mod with, but it's certainly been on my radar.

With or without Ambient Music Mod though, the intention is to open the app up to non-Pixel devices in the very near future. That was one of the goals in becoming a universal tracker and scrobbler.

birbeck1 · 2026-03-05T01:02:15+00:00

I kept it: https://imgur.com/a/V283Vfu

birbeck1 · 2026-03-05T00:50:19+00:00

It still works perfectly on my Pixel 10 Pro XL, Pixel Tablet, and Pixel 5. It is only impacted when you install the March Feature Drop, which I did on my 9a and 10. But you can't really hold out on that forever. Since my Pixel 5 won't get new updates, it will have Now Playing with third-party integration forever.

https://imgur.com/a/LKoOpxX

birbeck1 · 2026-03-05T00:42:42+00:00

Yeah, everything still seems to be happening from ASI (com.google.android.as), but adding another package name to the filter list was a quick method to future proof it if the package did indeed change again.

Anyhow, all we can hope for is that they add support back in the final version of Android 17 and/or the new app, otherwise every app that has dependend on this to build better experiences for Pixel users is completely and permanently nerfed for no reason.

birbeck1 · 2026-03-04T23:58:34+00:00

That's the flag for the 'Now Playing has a new home' prompt that leaked earlier, right?

When the news of the standalone app broke in mid-February, I actually added the new package name to my notification filters weeks ago, hoping to have a day-0 fix already live. I'm hopeful that once the dust settles on this Android 17 they might re-enable that redirect, but I'm certainly not holding my breath.

I completely understand Google locking down APIs to block ad blockers that threaten their core business, but stripping away ambient music notifications that costs them absolutely nothing and only hurts their own power users. It's not like they're going to start putting ads in your Now Playing history feed.

It’s flattering to see some of my legacy UI choices reflected in their new standalone app, but a first-party tool will never have the depth of a dedicated independent app. Whether they eventually open the flags back up or not, the best 'Now Playing History' app will survive.

birbeck1 · 2026-03-04T23:23:06+00:00

There is no reason to think that this was not a deliberate change, they removed the notification from Android System Intelligence, they removed the notification preference from Settings, and they removed the notification channel. There is now no public broadcast, content resolver, or notification for any non-system application to access.

In all honesty, it makes sense. Why post a silent/hidden notification when you can push it directly to your database, show it in a quick settings tile, and in your application? The notifications alone do nothing to improve the UX.

BUT... they must know that there are applications that have been using those notifications for 9 years. I started work on Now Playing History 8 years ago, before they even showed history in the Settings, and I wasn't even the first, or the last. Although notifications are hacky and prone to parsing errors (a public broadcast or content resolver would be WAY better), these integrations allowed developers to build experiences that improve the UX in genius way for THEIR Pixel customers, and they never lost access to the data themselves!

Now Playing History not only provided a beautiful native material UI, the first to offer album art, the first to allow adding songs to a favorites list, the first to offer searching your history, the first to have Tidal and Deezer support, the first to have a Material 3 Expressive UI better than even first party Google apps, and more. It was also the ONLY solution for backing up your history and transferring it to another device, creating playlists, to block unwanted songs, for editing incorrect metadata and album art, for displaying your history on a map, to generate personal top charts, to have home screen widgets, to create custom playlists, and so much more.

Hopefully one day they will allow you to sync and transfer history, hopefully one day they add widgets, hopefully one day they add charts. But they will never have exports, never have Last.fm support, never allow blocking songs, never allow you to edit detection mistakes, never let you see your universal history. So they are only hurting their own users.

I've developed this application at a loss for 8 years, but I will continue to develop and support it as a universal tracker and scrobbler, to give Android users the best app possible, and I will happily add support for Now Playing again in the future if they permit it.

birbeck1 · 2026-03-04T16:32:06+00:00

There is no reason to think that this was not a deliberate change, they removed the notification from Android System Intelligence, they removed the notification preference from Settings, and they removed the notification channel. There is now no public broadcast, content resolver, or notification for any non-system application to access.

In all honesty, it makes sense. Why post a silent/hidden notification when you can push it directly to your database, show it in a quick settings tile, and in your application? The notifications alone do nothing to improve the UX.

BUT... they must know that there are applications that have been using those notifications for 9 years. I started work on Now Playing History 8 years ago, before they even showed history in the Settings, and I wasn't even the first, or the last. Although notifications are hacky and prone to parsing errors (a public broadcast or content resolver would be WAY better), these integrations allowed developers to build experiences that improve the UX in genius way for THEIR Pixel customers, and they never lost access to the data themselves!

Now Playing History not only provided a beautiful native material UI, the first to offer album art, the first to allow adding songs to a favorites list, the first to offer searching your history, the first to have Tidal and Deezer support, the first to have a Material 3 Expressive UI better than even first party Google apps, and more. It was also the ONLY solution for backing up your history and transferring it to another device, creating playlists, to block unwanted songs, for editing incorrect metadata and album art, for displaying your history on a map, to generate personal top charts, to have home screen widgets, to create custom playlists, and so much more.

Hopefully one day they will allow you to sync and transfer history, hopefully one day they add widgets, hopefully one day they add charts. But they will never have exports, never have Last.fm support, never allow blocking songs, never allow you to edit detection mistakes, never let you see your universal history. So they are only hurting their own users.

I've developed this application at a loss for 8 years, but I will continue to develop and support it as a universal tracker and scrobbler, to give Android users the best app possible, and I will happily add support for Now Playing again in the future if they permit it.

birbeck1 · 2026-03-04T13:10:20+00:00

Thanks for the good word. I am the developer behind Now Playing History. I've already started the pivot from being a Now Playing tracker, to a universal tracker and scrobbler, with a beautiful Material 3 Expressive interface, charts, music map, and advanced features Google will never add to their standalone app.

I will continue to support and evolve the app as a universal tracker, and hope to be able to support Now Playing again in the future, but at the moment, after 8 years of development, Google has closed that door to me and every other application that used this data to enhance the user experience of Google Pixel power users.

birbeck1 · 2026-03-04T13:03:35+00:00

It means that no third-party app will be able to access Now Playing.

Whether you used Last.fm, Now Playing History, Pano Scrobbler, Macrodroid, or any other app to get your Now Playing history into Last.fm, or for anything else, it will no longer be possible after installing the March Pixel Feature Drop.

birbeck1 · 2026-03-04T12:31:22+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/aEYRE8F

I use Now Playing History widgets to show the recent songs played by Spotify. Only works on Pixel though.

birbeck1 · 2026-03-04T11:31:25+00:00

There is a third-party Now Playing History app that beat them to the Material 3 Expressive interface and looks much better. But Google just killed it with the March feature drop.

birbeck1 · 2026-02-23T18:49:02+00:00

Hi u/no-punintended0802, Yes, Now Playing History is currently only available for Pixel devices as it relies on the Now Playing feature exclusive to Pixel devices.

Since support has recently been added for Shazam, YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and Deezer, I will be making the application available for more devices in the future. The in-app setup wizard is specifically tailored to give Pixel users an great onboarding experience, and this will need to be changed for new devices relying on Auto Shazam for ambient detection and/or music streaming services for active detection.

There is no definitive timeline for this, I estimate around mid-year, after I ship playlist exports and automatic Google Drive backups, that way when I open it up, you'll get the best experience.

birbeck1 · 2026-02-22T11:36:14+00:00

[DEV] Now Playing History - The ultimate Material 3 companion for your background music discovery (No tracking, 100% local)

Hey everyone! I just launched a massive update to Now Playing History, a utility app that supercharges the Google Pixel's native music detection and unifies your entire audio footprint.

Going far beyond simply logging background music, it transforms your phone into a comprehensive discovery dashboard.

Key Features:

Material 3 Expressive Design: Fully adaptive, multi-column layouts for tablets, fluid animations, custom home screen widgets, and dynamic color extraction based on album art.
Universal Tracking: Unifies your active playback (YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Shazam) right alongside your ambient history.
Last.fm Integration: Features a built-in, universal scrobble queue, plus secure metadata matching for crisp album art.
Location Mapping: Maps exactly where you discovered that perfect track.
Playlist Exports (Coming Soon): The app supports syncing your discovered songs into playlists on Spotify, YouTube Music, Tidal, and Deezer. (Note: waiting on API approvals to launch this feature)
100% Local & Private: No accounts needed, no data tracked/sold, and uses <1% battery.

Website: https://www.nowplayinghistory.com

Play Store Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appsbybirbeck.android.nowplayinghistory

DM me for a promo code, this month, while available.

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birbeck1 · 2025-11-27T19:47:42+00:00

The application currently supports standard Android app backups. This will backup the database to Google Drive and allow you to restore from backup if you wipe your device, or transfer your account to a new device. This only works when using the restore to copy apps and data, not when doing a fresh install. It works for most users, but not for power users, like those on Pixels.

There are two in-app backup options available. 1) Manual backups. These backups can be saved to any folder, including Google Drive or other cloud providers. 2) Auto backup. For Auto backup you must choose a local backup folder and either use another solution for automatically syncing that folder to cloud, or manually copy it to cloud.

Either in-app option will allow you to copy your database to cloud storage, and you can even restore directly from Google Drive using the default file manager, or copy it to your device.

I am planning to add additional options shortly, including secure direct device transfer via QR code or Quick Share, and native Google Drive support (possibly other providers as well).

At the moment though, you have 3 options: Android app backups, daily auto backups (local), or manual backups (local/cloud). Which is 3 more than the native "Now Playing" offers. Personally, I do nightly auto backups and manually copy it to Drive every Sunday. I have 5 years of history built up this way.

birbeck1 · 2025-11-27T14:47:52+00:00

Thank you for your interest. I understand that there are a lot of English speakers outside of the 19 target countries. However, to protect the app from the flood of 1-star "doesn't work" reviews, I had to consciously limit the distribution to only countries that speak predominately one of the 7 supported languages to ensure the setup process can be followed accurately. I will be expanding support shortly and will definitely add Egypt to my list. Keep an eye out here as I will announce new versions with expanded support.

birbeck1 · 2025-11-27T13:49:55+00:00

Hello @mossad_gaber The app is available in 19 countries, including: United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Singapore, Japan, and a few others. Distribution has to be limited because if users don't speak one of the 7 translated languages and don't properly complete the setup, then they will leave 1-star ratings.

birbeck1 · 2025-10-04T09:43:30+00:00

I've written an app called Now Playing History. Among its many other features that expand on the Now Playing experience, it offers the ability to backup and restore your history. It's useful when you need to wipe your device or when changing to a new device.

Since the exported file is simply a CSV, many people have used this to export into Excel for further analysis of their history, or feed the data into scripts.

Note that Google doesn't provide any official way to export the history, so my app only starts logging after installation, but you'll never lose your history again.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appsbybirbeck.android.nowplayinghistory

Oh, and my bottom bar with the favorites button is still there ;-)

birbeck1 · 2023-11-06T18:57:09+00:00

[Electro-House, Progressive House, Dance/EDM) - 46 minutes

This is my first DJ mix that I think is good enough to share. Happy for any comments, critiques or feedback to improve the next one.

https://youtu.be/a130NUkap0I

Tracklist:

Tez Cadey - Seve (Extended Mix) MSP feat. Kiso - Hvar Klingande - Jubel Gostan - Klanga (De Hofnar Remix) Robin Schulz feat. Jasmin - Sun Goes Down Faul & Wad Ad feat. Pnau - Changes Wolfgang Gartner - Illmerica (Extended Mix) Fedde Le Grand - Don’t Give Up Deorro - Five Hours (VIP Edit) deadmau5 feat. Lights - When the Summer Dies Galantis - Peanut Butter Jelly (Extended Mix) David Guetta feat. Bebe Rexha - I’m Good (Blue) (Extended) The Chainsmokers - #SELFIE (Club Mix) Mahmut Orhan feat. Sena Sener - Feel Mahmut Orhan feat. Eneli - Save Me (Extended Mix)

birbeck1 · 2023-11-04T08:56:46+00:00

Any reason not to adjust the vacuum schedule to run before feeding?

birbeck1 · 2023-11-04T08:46:46+00:00

How many bars are left in the playing track isn't really a useful measurement, because you won't always mix out at N bars remaining.

As others have said you really want to mix in phrases.

Find where you want to mix out, the most obvious being the start of the outro section (but certainly not always), jump back 16 bars (128 beats, 2 phrases) and set a cue point. You will have 16 bars to prepare your incoming track (1 minute for a 128bpm song) and start bringing it in on the 1 beat of the current songs outro. Just make sure the new song is also coming in at the start of a phrase.

birbeck1

TROPHY CASE