If there’s a song stuck in your head, but you can’t remember the lyrics, band name or song title, no worries. YouTube Music is here to help.
The YouTube Music app on Android is rolling out a new Shazam-like feature that lets you hum (or badly sing) a song into your phone to search for it on YouTube Music. The hum-to-search feature is similar to the one that’s been available in the Google app and Google Assistant since 2020.
Here’s how to get YouTube Music to recognize your humming. For more, here is the best music streaming service of 2024.
How to hum a song for YouTube Music to recognize
If you want to try out the new feature, you’ll need to update to latest version of the Android YouTube Music, which is currently 7.02.51. You can update directly via the Play Store on your Android device.
In the YouTube Music app, go to the Home page, tap on the magnifying glass search button in the upper right and then hit the audio wave icon. YouTube Music will ask you to play, sing or hum whatever song you’re trying to search for.
You can also sing to search, even if you don’t know the lyrics perfectly.
I had pretty good luck finding songs that were relatively simple to hum, like The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” The Cranberries’ “Linger,” and The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony.” However, I had a more difficult time getting Black Sabbath’s “Children of the Grave” (metal) and Death Grips’ “Get Got” (experimental hip-hop) to work.
These were two relatively easy songs to hum and find. Once a song is recognized, you can play it or save it to your library.
Overall, it works great with more popular and relatively simple or catchy songs, just don’t try anything more complex, like avant-garde jazz, technical death metal or melodic hardcore.
While you’re here, read more about Apple Music vs. Spotify.
