#HumToSearch

Isn't it awful when you forget a song and the only thing you can remember is the rhythm of the chorus, so you end up humming it to a friend in the hope of finding out what the track is? Google has solved this problem by offering itself as that friend.

At its global "Search On" event, the company announced #HumToSearch to help you with exactly that. Now you just hum the tune and Google will find it — no lyrics, no artist name, not even a tuneful voice required.

How does it work?

Google keeps it very straightforward: open the latest version of the Google app or use the search widget, tap the microphone icon and say "what's this song". Alternatively, you can press the "search a song" button. Then start humming the melody for 10 to 15 seconds. The results will show the most likely songs based on the sound detected.

How is that possible?

According to Google, "the feature works by using machine learning models to transform the audio into a number-based sequence representing the song's melody". Put more simply, it's as if every song had a "fingerprint", a unique identity. These models "identify songs based on a variety of sources, including humans singing, whistling or humming, as well as studio recordings." The algorithms then strip out all the other details for a better search — instruments, timbre and vocal tone — which is excellent news, because it means you don't need to be in tune to get results. For now, #HumToSearch is only available in English and on iOS devices. But the search giant plans to expand to more than 20 languages on Android in the future.

Via Google