Figure Out That Song in Your Head With Google’s New ‘Hum to Search’ Feature

You know when you want to look up a song, but you have no idea what it's called or who sings it, so you start to hum the melody to your friend in hopes they can figure it out? Google has solved this musical puzzle with its latest app feature.

Introducing "Hum to Search."

Krishna Kumar, Senior Product Manager, breaks down the new feature on Google and all it takes is your voice and the latest version of the Google app.

"Tap the mic icon and say 'what's this song?' or click the 'Search a song' button. Then start humming for 10-15 seconds," she said.

You don't have to be a good singer, you just have to get the melody down. The days of bumbling, "bum bada bum bada bum" while you perform your rendition of Tone and I's "Dance Monkey" to your friends are over. After you're done humming, the "machine learning algorithm" does the rest of the work and provides you with a list of potential songs to choose from, offering up information about each song.

So the next time you hear a new song on Fun 107 and can't quite remember the lyrics, just hum or sing your favorite part into the Google microphone and watch the musical magic happen.

Kumar explained that the melody in a song works as a "fingerprint," giving the song its own identity. The app, in turn, searches for the right fingerprint.

Some of my favorite calls to the studio are the ones where a listener is trying to figure out who sings a song and they bust out into "oohs" and "ahhs," trying to convey the song to us. With the "Hum to Search" feature on Google, you can save yourself a step and ask your phone. Imagine the growth of your music library thanks to this one-of-a-kind technology.

The "Hum to Search" feature is currently available in English on iOS, and in more than 20 languages on Android.