Apple just bought Shazam. What does it mean for the next iPhone?

Audio recognition company Shazam is about to get supercharged

Apple has just bought audio recognition software company Shazam for a whopping $400 million, which is about £300 million. But what does that all mean for iPhone buyers?

Apple buying anything means it’s going take that thing to the next level. In the case of Shazam there is huge potential that’s yet to be realised. Primarily Shazam is currently used to recognise music, TV shows, films and adverts from sound alone, but this could be extended massively.

Another change to Shazam could appear in the form of a new way to listen to recognised music. Currently the Shazam app lets you pick your music streaming platform of choice to hear the song that was recognised. Apple will almost certainly change that to make it exclusive to Apple Music. 

There's even the chance this could be used to listen to sounds in your home to let your smart home automation work better. Could it scare off a burglar by flipping on a hall light, or hear a baby cry and down the TV thanks to Apple HomeKit.?

For now we’ll have to wait and see as the deal has only just been made public. 

Luke is a freelance writer for T3 with over two decades of experience covering tech, science and health. Among many things, Luke writes about health tech, software and apps, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones and cars. In his free time, Luke climbs mountains, swims outside and contorts his body into silly positions while breathing as calmly as possible.