iOS 18.2 beta feature helps you remember songs based on where you heard them

Macworld

Ever since Apple acquired Shazam in 2018, the company has been actively developing the music recognition service and baking its features into its operating systems. At this point, users can identify songs on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS without installing the Shazam app—thanks to Siri and the dedicated Control Center toggle. With iOS 18.2 beta, Apple is further elevating the built-in Music Recognition utility.

As discovered by Macworld, iOS 18.2 lets the Music Recognition applet geotag songs based on where users discover them. When a user taps and holds on the dedicated Music Recognition Control Center toggle, and then clicks History for the first time, a new splash screen appears. The page highlights existing features, such as song history and support for iCloud sync, and adds a new feature called Musical Memories.

Once you allow location access, it will automatically enable a geotagging feature that will tag songs with location data. So, going forward, when you discover songs through the Music Recognition tool, it’ll attach your location to the song history so you’ll be able to place the song in a specific place to remember where you were when you heard it.

For the time being, the feature is limited to individual songs, and there’s seemingly no way to access a universal map with pins highlighting all of the songs you’ve Shazamed. So, you can only view the location of each song separately by tapping on it in the history log. Tapping the place’s name in the discovered song’s details redirects users to the respective street in the Apple Maps app.

It’s worth noting that this feature, like Music Recognition, works without having the Shazam app installed. In fact, at the time of writing, Shazam still doesn’t offer the same geotagging perk. Apple, however, could bring the option to the full app once iOS 18.2 launches to the public later this year.