Google Assistant can now identify almost any song playing near you

Shazam's got new competition.

You'll soon be able to identify almost any song that's playing near you with Google Assistant's music recognition software.

The feature was released one month ago, but was limited only to Google's Pixel phones.

Now, it's being rolled out to Android devices that have Google Assistant enabled.

After holding down on the home button to trigger Assistant, simply ask it: "What song is this?" and it replies with the title, artist and short excerpt of the lyrics.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The info card also contains links to YouTube and Google Play Music, and a link to search for the song on Google.

The feature doesn't appear to have rolled out across all countries yet, though people in Canada, UK, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Australia have said that the feature is available for them.

Google's software has been able to identify music for a while, although this rollout will see it become more pervasive across Android devices.

The company had in 2015 built the same functionality into voice-based Google Now, which it's now trying to replace with Assistant.

Apple had earlier teamed up with Shazam in 2014 to power its song recognition software for Siri. It's not clear if Google has built the capability itself, or if it relies on a third party.