Google's Latest Innovation Will Identify Songs By Humming

Got a song stuck in your head? Alphabet's (GOOG) Google can help. Now through its search widget, users can just hum, whistle, or sing a melody, and the search engine will provide the name of the song and who sings it.

To use the new Google features, users will need to have the Google app and tap the microphone icon. Simply say to Google, “what’s this song?’ or click the “search a song” button. Users will need to hum, sing, or whistle the song for 10 to 15 seconds.

Users can also use Google Assistant to find the song in a similar way. Just say, “Hey Google, what’s this song?” And again, the user can sing, hum, or whistle the tune.

Google said there is no need to worry about having a “perfect pitch” when humming or singing your tune as its machine learning algorithm can identify it.

So, how does it work?

Google’s Search uses a machine-learning algorithm that works to identify each song match. To identify the song, Google’s Search transforms the melody into a number-based sequence. This algorithm compares the sequence to thousands of songs from around the world and identifies a match in real-time.

To explain further, Google compared a song’s melody to a fingerprint, saying that each tune has its own identity. The machine learning algorithm matches that unique melody to the right song or fingerprint.

When searched, Google will provide information about the song and artist, any music videos related to the song, the song itself, lyrics, analysis of the tune, and other recordings of the song when available.

Google is offering the new feature in English on Apple’s iOS and in 20 languages on Android. The company said it hopes to expand the language offering in the future.

Shares of Alphabet were trading at $1,570.37 as of 9:56 a.m. EDT, up $11.24 or 0.72%.