Ambient Music Mod is a Shizuku/Sui app that ports Now Playing from Pixels to other Android devices.
Requirements
- Android device running Android 9.0 or above (11+ recommended).
- Shizuku (Android 12+) or Sui Magisk module (Android 9+).
- Shizuku does not require root, instead needing an ADB command or a few button presses to be made every reboot.
Features
- Full Now Playing support, based on the latest version from Pixel devices and the latest music databases
- Automatic Ambient Music recognition, with settings to control how often recognition runs - finding the right balance between battery usage and convenience
- Now Playing History, Favourites and Summary support
- Support to trigger recognitions manually, including a homescreen widget
- On Demand recognition on supported devices, using the Google Assistant-backed recognition engine for songs that are not in the local database (must be triggered manually)
- Show Now Playing songs on the lock screen (accessibility service required)
- View the full track list of recognisable songs, and change the database location if your taste does not match your device's locale
Screenshots

Changelog
2.3
- Android 14 Beta 2 support
- Added option to control Ambient Music Mod externally from apps like Tasker with options:
- External Access can be protected by an Access Token which must be provided by the apps interacting with it (enabled by default)
- Enable Now Playing
- Disable Now Playing
- Toggle Now Playing
- Start an On Device Recognition
- Start an Online Recognition (if supported & enabled)
- Updated dependencies
For info on how to use External Access, check the page in the app or the Wiki page
2.2.2
- Fixed On Demand not working via the root method on some devices
- Improved Track Listing info, showing more details on tracks where available and fixing the Ask Google button
- Crash fixes
2.2.1
This is quite a large update, please make sure to update Ambient Music Mod and then Now Playing from the Updates screen after installing
- Enabled Now Playing Summary in the Now Playing History, a new feature that's not even on Pixels yet, which displays statistics about your listening habits including genre, artists, and timings from the last 30 days (configurable down to 1 day up to 365 days)
- NNFPv3 (the updated model) is now enabled on all devices except legacy armv7. Google have switched Pixels over to using it, indicating music databases for the legacy model may stop being updated at some point.
Please note that due to format changes, a database update will be forced after updating, and any saved On Demand recognitions will be removed. This is unavoidable, and Google has already done this on Pixel devices with official Now Playing
- Added experimental option to download extra country databases (up to two)
- Added option to periodically (daily/weekly/monthly) back up to a specified location
- Improved track list viewer speed by caching track info in Ambient Music Mod, rather than loading it from the Now Playing database every time. This will increase the storage footprint of Ambient Music Mod, but you can clear the app's cache if it becomes an issue.
- Added a track info viewer to the track list, displaying all available information for a track on one page, including links to play tracks in the database
- Added option to edit and delete stored On Demand tracks
- Updated database downloader, and implemented a system whereby the system Job Scheduler (which is relied on to schedule downloads) gets told to expedite downloads where possible. This should improve the speed of database downloads.
- Improved Lock Screen detection logic
- Fixed an issue where some switches in the app behaved differently depending on whether the text or the switch handle was pressed
- Fixed an issue where notifications for Now Playing were being re-enabled after being disabled by the user on some devices
nb: Version 2.2.1 fixes a cache issue with 2.2 which may impact updates. For this reason, it has replaced 2.2 and that version has been removed.
2.1.2
- Fixed Restore option not showing any options of files to restore
2.1.1
- Improved adaptive lock screen overlay
- Fixed insets on 3 button devices
- Allow install on x86_64 devices without libhoudini or libndk
2.1
- Added x86_64 support
- Fixed Android 13 Shizuku issue
- Updated switch style
- Removed "run when battery saver enabled" as it was not functioning and cannot be fixed
- Fixed overlay continuing to appear when bedtime mode is enabled
- Added message about static noise to playback screen
2.0.5
- Fixed an issue where on device recognition would not work on some devices using Shizuku
2.0.4
- Added the ability for On Demand recognitions to run without the Magisk overlay module, so long as the device is rooted. You must start Shizuku as root or use Sui to make use of this method, and the overlay is still preferred if it works on your device. Please read the Wiki page for more information.
- Further improvements to the On Demand overlay, fixing issues on OnePlus devices
- Fixed the Lock Screen overlay not appearing when Smart Lock is enabled
- Fixed Alternative Encoding and Lock Screen Overlay colour options not being backed up
2.0.3
- Added armv7 support
- Fixed crashes on Android 10
- Fixed an issue where some tracks were not showing up in the track list or in the track count (US database is actually 69k tracks, not 53k)
- Added an option to change the lockscreen overlay text colour
- The lockscreen overlay text now has a slight shadow, improving visibility
- Added caching for updates, which should prevent rate-limit issues. You can force an update check (ignoring cache) by swiping to refresh.
- Enabled landscape orientation
- Fixed background crashes in Now Playing, which may help download issues.
- Improved Magisk On Demand module overlay installing, which may fix bootloops on some devices
Note: Due to issues with the backend database update system, there have been two database updates in the last two days. This is now fixed, and future updates will be timely rather than all at once. Apologies for any inconvenience.
2.0.2:
- Added alternative encoding option, fixing distortion/crackling on some devices when enabled
IMPORTANT: You must also update Now Playing to 1.0.1 for the alternative encoding option to work. Use the Updates page in the app to update Now Playing.
- Increased max gain to 3.0 to cope with new encoding which requires a higher gain on some devices
- Reduced the chance of audio recording errors
- Removed "Timeout" notification as it was more useless than it was useful
- Fixed unclickable Chips on Recognition Success page (eg. Ask Google)
Installation
Download the latest APK from the GitHub Releases page and install it. Ambient Music Mod will download and install the latest Now Playing APK for you as part of the setup process.If you have any questions, please read the FAQ before opening a GitHub issue or replying to the thread.
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