How to Find a Song by Humming

Lee Stanton February 16, 2024

Have you ever had a song or melody stuck in your head, but you can’t identify it? You might ask friends if they know it or hope you hear it somewhere else again, but the experience can still be exasperating. You might not even know where you first heard it, but it becomes an annoying earworm.

In the old days, you’d have to wait until you heard it on the radio again. Fortunately, we now have tools with audio recognition technology that can help find the song simply by playing a section, humming, or even whistling. In this article, we’ll look at how you can find a song by humming.

How to Find a Song by Humming

Several tools can help you find a song by humming. The most popular is the Hum to Search feature in the Google app and Google Assistant. If you are an Android user, you don’t need third-party apps to enjoy this feature. Google has four ways to help you find a song.

Using Google Assistant on Android

Hold down your phone’s Home button to activate Google Assistant. Or, alternately, hold your phone to you and say, “Hey Google.”
Ask, “What’s this song?”
Hum the song you want to identify, and Google Assistant will provide possible matches of the song.
Tap on one of them, and it’ll lead you to the search results page, where you can view lyrics, listen to the song, or watch the music video.

You can also sing the song if you know some of the lyrics. In either case, Google Assistant will identify the particular song.

Using the Google App

Using the Google App to find a song by humming is similar to using Google Search. This method is ideal for iPhone users or people who don’t use Google Assistant.

Open the Google app on your phone.
Tap the microphone icon on the left-hand side of the search bar.
Tap Search a Song.
Follow the prompt to hum the tone of a song.
Look through the possible matches to find the song. You can do this by selecting each search result to listen to a preview of the song, see the lyrics, or watch the music video.

Using YouTube

Because Google owns YouTube, you can use the app to search for a song by humming. The feature works similarly to how “Hum to Search” in Google Assistant or the Google app works. Open the YouTube app, and instead of searching via text, tap the microphone, switch to the Song tap, and hum your tune. The YouTube app will automatically identify the tune and show the search results.

The only bummer is that this feature is only available on YouTube’s Android app. Also, note that you cannot use this method to identify a song used in a YouTube video. You must use Shazam or another third-party app for that.

How to Find a Song by Humming With SoundHound

If you don’t want to use any Google tools, you can also use third-party apps. SoundHound is a popular music-recognition tool that uses audio analysis tech to match songs by tone.

Download SoundHound from Google Play or Apple App Store and open it.
Tap the SoundHound icon in the middle of the page.
Hum the song’s melody.
SoundHound will display a list of potential songs that likely match your tone.
If you recognize the song title, you can tap on it and play it. If not, you’ll need to play one song after the other to find the one you’re looking for.

Name That Tune

In the past, most music streaming apps helped users identify songs, but only if the actual song was currently playing in the background or through a search for lyrics. Today, we can also find songs simply by humming the melody, thanks to highly advanced software and making those annoying earworms disappear.

Once identified, you can set the song as your iPhone alarm so that you wake up to your favorite tune every morning.

FAQs

Can Google still recognize the melody even if I sing off-key?

Yes, Google can recognize the melody and provide potential matches even if you are off-key. Google doesn’t need you to have the best vocals to recognize the tone. As long as the melody is close to the actual song, you can find the song you’re seeking.

Why can’t I find a song by humming with my Google app?

If you cannot find a song by humming through your Google app, you may be using an outdated version of the Google App. Go to your app store to get the updated version, and you can find your song by humming.