After launching in early March, Google released the first update to its new Now Playing app for Pixel phones.
As of Friday, version 2026.03.24.x (up from 2026.03.02.x) is widely available via Google Play. It has been slowly rolling out over the past few days.
We haven’t noticed any obvious changes after the update, so presumably this is a behind-the-scenes bug fix. Google did not update the “What’s New” release notes in the Play Store listing.
Some have reported See the Now Playing icon followed by “Tap to see what’s playing” below the fingerprint icon on the lock screen. It’s reminiscent of the previous version’s ability to trigger an online search if your Pixel recognized a song was playing, but couldn’t identify it using the device’s database.
The redesign offers a lock screen shortcut (as seen below) and a quick settings tile as alternatives. (This last option, in 2×1 size, also replaces the silent notification that identifies what is currently playing.)
Not all users see this and we have not been able to replicate it on multiple phones. One possibility is that “Tap to see what’s playing” is a message to inform users that tapping the icon when a song name and artist appears allows them to quickly favorite a song and open their music app, as well as view the cover art.
Hopefully there will be more substantial updates in the future. First-party apps usually receive big updates along with Pixel Drops every three months.
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