Google Search Can Now Find Songs Based On User Humming

We've all randomly thought of a song we'd like to hear again if we could remember its title, the artist, or even some lyrics to search for. Google is here to help with this effort by introducing hum support on Google Search, enabling its search engine to hunt for songs based on nothing more than the user humming the part of the song they can remember. In addition to humming, the feature also supports singing and whistling at the app.

The new feature is exactly what it sounds like — you can fire up Google Search, tap a new option to search for a song, then start whistling, humming, or singing the tune while Google listens. The company's software will analyze the audio you provided, then serve up a song that it thinks may be the one you're looking for.

Google demonstrated the feature in a new video, providing examples of the kind of humming and whistling that can be used to search for songs — hint: it doesn't take much skill to provide an adequate sound bite. Because the process is less than perfect, though, users can expect to see a list of potential matches with a percentage showing the likelihood that the song is the one they're looking for.

The feature is available starting today, October 15, according to a new blog post from Google. The company explains that users can access the Google Search widget and on the iOS/Android apps. You'll need to provide 10 to 15 seconds of audio for Google Assistant to effectively search for songs — and, as you'd expect, you can ask the Assistant 'What song is this?' to search rather than tapping the button.

The tool currently supports more than 20 languages, at least if you're an Android user, with the company explaining that it will be expanding this support in the future. Google says this new feature is made possible by its AI Research efforts, particularly in the field of music recognition technology.