Google lets you hum to search that tune you can’t get out of your head
One of the most annoying experiences is having a song stuck in your heard but you don’t know the title, the artist, or even any of the lyrics of the song. You might have heard it from a stranger on the bus or on the aisle of the grocery, but it’s like a worm burrowing in your head. Now Google says they can help with that with a new feature on Search where you can just hum a few notes of the song and it will try to figure out what that song is as well as which artist sang it.
Using the new hum to search feature is pretty easy. Go to the Google Search app or tap the Google Search widget microphone icon and say “what’s this song”. Then you can go ahead and hum the notes that you remember from the song or about 15-20 seconds. If you’re using Google Assistant, you can just say “Hey Google, what’s this song?” then start humming the tune. The machine algorithm will then try to identify the song and give you some matches.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to have an angelic singing, or rather, humming voice. Google should be able to understand the song you’re trying to find and give you the most likely options based on the “unique identity” of the song’s melody. When you choose the song from the possible results, you’ll be able to explore things like information about the artist or album, accompanying music videos, music apps where you can listen to the song, etc.
Google has also been bringing other ways to search aside from typing in words, particularly the more visual options through Google Lens. This type of search is particularly important for parents and students who are doing distance learning during these times. Shopping is also something that is made easy with Lens as it will help you find where you can buy the item that you snapped a picture of.
As for the hum to search feature, it’s available in more than 20 languages on Android (but only in English for Android now). Google will be expanding this to more languages and countries soon as well.
