**Pixel Smartphones Hit by Bug in ‘Now Playing’ Feature**
*By Dwaipayan Roy | Sep 20, 2025, 06:48 PM*
Google’s Pixel smartphones have recently encountered a minor bug affecting the popular **Now Playing** feature. This issue emerged following the latest update to Android System Intelligence and has caused the disappearance of the “Favorites” tab from the Now Playing history.
### What’s Changed?
Previously, users had access to two tabs within the Now Playing history: a reverse-chronological **History** tab and a **Favorites** tab for quick access to preferred tracks. After the update, only the **History** feed remains visible, leaving no separate tab for favorite songs.
### Functionality Remains Intact
Despite the missing Favorites tab, users can still **mark songs as favorites** directly from their lock screen or notifications. This indicates that while the interface has changed, the core functionality of favoriting tracks continues to work as expected.
The bug is specific to version **B.13** of Android System Intelligence, which is currently being rolled out to a wide range of devices.
### Feature Evolution and Feedback
In addition to this update, the latest Android System Intelligence introduced a **Now Playing lockscreen shortcut**, designed to make triggering song searches easier. However, this shortcut is not yet available on the Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2 release.
The Now Playing feature has faced criticism in the past, particularly for **not transferring history** when users switch to a new Pixel phone, a limitation many found inconvenient.
The last major update, titled **“Enhance Now Playing”**, rolled out at the end of 2024 and brought album artwork integration to the feature, improving its visual appeal.
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Google has yet to comment on a fix for the recent bug, but users can expect an update addressing the issue in future releases of Android System Intelligence.
https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/science/google-s-pixel-smartphones-are-facing-a-bug/story