YouTube Music for Android has introduced a new feature that lets users search for songs stuck in their heads just by humming along. The feature was already present in other Google apps like Search and YouTube, and even Pixel smartphones, allowing users to search for songs and find them using machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). Now it’s made its way to the YouTube Music app, opening up new ways to identify songs playing on the radio or in malls.
YouTube Music is getting a new AI search feature
The Hum to Search feature was spotted in the YouTube Music app for Android version 7.02. It is present in the application represented by a new waveform icon in the upper right corner of the screen, next to the microphone icon. Touching the icon opens a new colorful page that says “Play Sing or Hum Song”. After successful completion of search query, it displays details like song, artist, year, album and artwork. Below them you have options to ‘Play’ or ‘Save’ the song.
New YouTube Music search feature
According to a report by 9to5Google, it uses AI “to match the audio to the original recording.” Since it’s a Google feature, it supposedly works similarly to the Hum to Search feature in the Google Search app. This feature, introduced in 2020, allows users to hum songs to search for them in more than 20 languages on Android and iOS devices. Google says it doesn’t require perfect pitch because a song’s melody is its “unique identity” and turns it into a number-based string to identify it and find matches.
The report further suggests that Google started testing this feature on YouTube Music in March 2024, but it hasn’t made it to the public until now. We tried accessing this feature and it works as advertised. If you haven’t received it on your device, it might take a few days for it to become widely available as the tech giant is gradually rolling out its feature.
