© Provided by T3 Google Hum to Search
Google Home Shazam
Shazam for iOS & Android. Find the name of any song and artist in seconds. Listen and add to Apple Music or Spotify playlists. Follow along with time-synced lyrics. Watch music videos from Apple Music or YouTube. Discover the most Shazamed tracks of the week around the world with Shazam charts. If you have an Android phone running Marshmallow (6.0) onwards, you should already have Google Assistant. Just say “Ok Google” or press and hold the home button to check for yourself.
We’ve all been there, peacefully minding our own business, when suddenly an infectious melody enters our heads that we just can’t place, no matter how hard we try.
We’ll desperately consult family, friends, the internet in our vain attempt to identify the track, and Shazam's no good as it needs a snippet of the song itself to identify it. Well, Google’s latest feature is here to make this situation a thing of the past.
- PS5 pre-orders: Where to buy PS5
Announced at Google’s ‘Search On 2020’ event, the Google Android/iOS app now supports the option to use voice search to specifically search for songs by humming or whistling.
Dubbed Hum to Search, the feature uses machine learning to match a hum or whistle to a song. If Google’s data is anything to go by, with the question ‘What Song is Playing?’ reportedly being input into Google search almost 100 million times a month, this feature should prove extremely popular.
You don’t even have to have the right tone or key, which should help alleviate the embarrassment of your tone-deaf rendition of Era’s ‘Ameno’ in front of your friends.
To access the functionality, ensure you have the latest version of the Google app installed on your smartphone. Open the updated Google app and then tap the microphone icon to start Voice Search. Tap the prompt called ‘Search for this Song’ that should appear towards the bottom of the expanded search box and let rip with your humming or whistling.
After 10-15 seconds, Google will present a series of potential matches based on your input with quick links to the song on streaming services as well as related content like lyrics and music videos.
- Oppo Reno 4 Pro 5G review: a premium mid-ranger with a punch
- The 20 best board games for adults, families and two players
So, how well does it work? In our testing, we found that Hum to Search was able to identify numerous classic and contemporary tracks, particularly from the Pop and Rock genres, such as Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart and The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights with relative ease.
However, the search seemed to falter when presented with hummed renditions of contemporary Hip-Hop, namely Kendrick Lamar’s Alright – and there’s no way this kind of tool could be used to identify less melodic genres like Death Metal.
Regardless of the feature’s limitations at the time of writing, it still offers a clear advantage over services like Shazam which require direct samples of the track in place of Google’s much lower requirement of humming or whistling. We’re sure this feature can only improve over time, like all deep-learning AIs.
This feature is currently available in English on iOS, and in more than 20 languages on Android.
- Best Christmas gifts: present ideas for everyone
Google recently filed a patent that on first glance seems remarkably similar to Shazam. But rather than identifying music, Google will 'listen' to the environment around you to answer questions like 'who's in this TV programme?' or 'who directed this movie?' Michael Thomson, senior digital media strategist, DigitasLBi outlines its potential.
Having already conquered the subjects of the world, Google now wants to know more about your world. In a recently published patent, Google details how it plans to use signals from your environment – such as what you’re watching on television – to create a frictionless way to search.
At Advertising Week Europe, Google introduced “Search in the Age of Assistance”, a way to connect inspiration with action, search intent with search result.
This “assisted” world that has been patented is merely a breadcrumb trail, leading us closer towards a broader ambition:
“Artificial intelligence would be the ultimate version of Google… it would understand exactly what you wanted, and it would give you the right thing.” – Larry Page, co-founder of Google.
Google would like an effortless relationship with you – after all, you know each other well. It should be easy, like a friendship.
Search for a general subject and your approach is natural. As Google has come to know what to expect from us to some extent, we also know what to expect from its response. ‘How old is Edinburgh Castle?’ will return a factual statement, much like a tour guide would. Google will now even voice your answer, which is more human than machine. Ten years ago, the response would have been a list of links.
Search has clearly made strong strides recently: using our pin-pointed location to add context to the weather, changing what it provides based on where it predicts we’re driving to, or looking at email receipts to know where we’re flying to. It will recommend we leave in 10 minutes so we don’t miss our check-in, and explore our chat history to find out which restaurant we need opening times for (without us needing to name the place when commanding). It has so far simplified our day to day lives to the best of its impressive ability.
The challenge for Google is; us, and our world. We’re complex. We’re not available for crawling and indexing, unless we have a digital footprint.
Environmental search is arguably the next natural step. It’s no longer just a matter of making our lives easier, but rather, helping us to stay engaged in the right moments.
This new development gives us a glimpse into how Google wants to know and understand us. As we discover how it plans to listen to our environment – i.e. what’s happening around us – it’s clear that it aims to improve its relationship with inspiration and action.
Like a version of Shazam, but beyond music, the search engine will – on command – answer queries like ’Who’s the lead actor in this show?’ or ‘Who directed this movie?’. By listening to your environment, it’s able to use sound to establish what you’re watching, and provide you with answers. Fast.
Google Home Shazam Free
To make this a reality, you’d need a device with a sound recorder, making Google Home or Mobile essential. Chromecast could play a role too, but there’s no apparent reference to it in the patent.
The patent does list the types of content it will be able to carry this out for: movies, music, television shows, trailers, podcasts, images, artwork, books, magazines, internet video and video games. To get a similarly good result in today’s search, you’d need to add more meat to your query. For example, ‘Who’s the lead actor in T2 Trainspotting?’ or ‘Who directed T2 Trainspotting?’.
Google Home Shazam App
The difference is subtle, but what changes is the context (or environment). As the searcher, you will not need to know the name of the movie you’re watching before searching, for example.
Aside from the problem-solving that the patent authors depict, what I enjoy most is Google’s interest in us. This new solution has the potential to open up a whole new world of searches, which would typically require multiple research steps. Imagine being able to ask ‘what shoes is the actress wearing?’ or ‘what’s the name of the street they’re walking down?’ when watching a film. A welcome development for brands, I’m sure.
This article is about:
Like what you see? We can email it to you
Does Google Home Have Shazam
Choose from a series of great email briefings, whether that’s daily news, weekly recaps or deep dives into media or creative.