In an August YouTube trial, some viewers were able to identify a song just by humming along with it. It seems that the YouTube Music app may soon acquire the convenient song identification functionality that was extensively handed out to the YouTube app for Android phones in October.
It seems like this functionality is active for at least one Reddit user (via 9to5Google), however they are using the iOS YouTube Music app. The accompanying image demonstrates how the microphone symbol and search bar in the YouTube Music app will be accompanied with a button for the new song search function.
Regretfully, it doesn’t seem like this new music search feature is accessible to everyone. Neither an iPhone nor a Pixel smartphone could detect this function, and the people at 9to5Google were unable to find it on their phones either. However, the fact that it appears on YouTube Music’s iOS app is a clear sign that song identification is headed to YouTube Music.
Humming a song’s lyrics to search for it is not a novel concept; Google Search received a similar function back in October 2020. While humming is not enabled, Pixel phones have allowed background music recognition with Now Playing since 2017.
Humming a song on YouTube for Android to identify it
Humming is already a way for songs to be recognized on the YouTube app, but it’s only available on Android devices for now. To enable the function, hit the microphone button after clicking the search button located in the upper right corner of the YouTube app’s Home screen. This launches the Voice tab for standard voice search, while the Song tab allows you to identify songs Shazam-style or hum along with music.
I’ve personally tested this on the YouTube app for Android many times, and it works really well—with the exception of a few sporadic glitches. Given that YouTube Music has been a part of the YouTube Android app for a few months, it’s surprising that more people haven’t used it yet. The wider distribution, however, could start in the next weeks given that it’s available to at least some iOS users.
Can YouTube find a song by humming?
Users may now search for songs by humming, singing, or whistling the melody using the YouTube mobile app.
