The Android YouTube Music app features a feature that’s part of Shazam and singles out a friend when you say “hey what’s that song…” before humming it at the bar. This feature lets you hum, whistle, sing, or play a recording of a song to figure out what’s going on.
If you have the new feature, you’ll see a new waveform icon next to the microphone icon that appears when you click the search button in the top right corner of the app. Tap on that and the app will start listening. It’s not too shabby either! When I tested it, it was able to identify actual recordings at what seemed like an extraordinary speed, making it a great replacement for Shazam.
When it listened to my hum, it accurately picked out most of the songs I sang, whistled and hummed into my phone, but there were some funny moments:
It had to be”Dead,” They Can Be Giants.
I was whistling”The bat out of hell” by Meat Loaf here. At least Finnish hair metal comeback band Reckless Love is at least in the ballpark, sort of?
Can’t fault too much for what was left out. I was throwing songs at him that most people probably wouldn’t pick out without humming for a few seconds. Overall, it works quickly, perhaps faster than the feature Google Assistant has had for years. In recent months, there’s been a buzz to search YouTube Music for iOS, though it’s still not widespread.