The deal could allow Apple to integrate a popular consumer feature directly into its iPhones at a time when Apple’s innovation crown is under threat from Google and Samsung.

The Shazam app allows users to identify the music that’s playing nearby, such as a song in a restaurant or cafe. The app quickly became one of the most popular smartphone apps when it launched in 2009 and has been downloaded more than one billion times by consumers.

Google recently incorporated similar technology into its high-end Pixel 2 smartphone. Google’s version of the technology constantly monitors nearby music, displaying each song title on the phone’s screen — a handy feature that may have led Apple to conclude it needed to offer a similar function in its iPhones in order to not appear behind the curve.

Shazam CEO Rich Riley previously told Business Insider that the company would make sense insider a larger company looking for a foothold in music or advertising.

Source: uk.businessinsider.com