Google FINALLY has a feature where you can hum a song to search it, but does it work?

Have you ever heard a song on the radio or perhaps in a club that absolutely slaps? But for whatever reason, rather than whip out Siri or Shazam to find out what song it is, you just… don’t? Oh well, you’ll hear it again at some point so it really doesn’t matter! Aaand then you never hear it ever again. Luckily, Google has come up with a way to find out the name of that very song, and you don’t even need to know the lyrics!

Today they announced that they’ll be rolling out a new feature across all of their Google search products that will allow you to hum any song into your phone, finally getting the answer to that one tune that has been burning a hole in your brain for oh so long. But how do I use the Google song search function? Can I simply hum or do I need to know the lyrics? Which devices does the Google hum song search function work on?

How do I use the Google hum to search song function?

If you’ve ever tried to use a similar service online then you’ll know they’re just terrible, but Google seems pretty confident that their service works just fine.

With the latest version of the Google app on your mobile, simply tap the microphone button and say “What’s this song?” or tap the “Search a song” button. This is the part where you either hum, sing or whistle the desired song. Hopefully, Google will then come up with a song title and artist – it really is that easy!

In a blog post, a senior product manager for Google search explained how it works: “When you hum a melody into Search, our machine learning models transform the audio into a number-based sequence representing the song’s melody.” Cool.

The Google song search function can be used on either Android or iOS, all you need is the latest version of the app.

Does the Google hum search function actually work?

It appears from the above video by In Depth Tech Reviews, that humming, singing and whistling works surprisingly well, and that it actually offers the user several different options as to what the song could be.

So, what would the app do when it heard my dulcet tones? Well, I decided to hum three tunes in different obscurities – Wonderwall by Oasis, Something Has to Change by The Japanese House and then a song that I didn’t even know the title of myself, but I remember hearing it on the radio well over a year ago.

Unfortunately, it only picked up Wonderwall. It sucks.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• You can now see what your top streamed songs on Spotify have been during lockdown

• You can now get an official rating of how tragic your Spotify truly is

• Ranked: The top 20 most liked Instagram posts ever