As competition heats up in the tech industry, YouTube is reportedly testing a new feature that will enable users to find songs by providing a humming sample or a short recording of the song.
This means that besides using lyrics, the name of a song, or artists, users can now hum three seconds of a song to find it, much to the delight of users who have welcomed the latest addition to the video streaming platform.
Access still limited
According to their support page, YouTube said selected users on Android devices have the ability to use the feature.
“We’re experimenting with the ability for folks to search for a song on YouTube by humming or recording a song that’s currently being played,” wrote YouTube.
The Google-owned company also said those who have access can toggle from the voice search to the new search-by-hum feature and record a three-second sample of the song, whether it’s a hum or some song playing in the background.
If the song is identified, the user is then directed to the official music content or user-generated videos that relate to the sample uploaded by the user.
For Android users, this feature is coming to global users, but in small numbers, and there is no information on when there will be the same feature for iOS users as well.
This feature is well known to those who have used Apple’s Shazam, which can be used to find the name of a song by recording a sample of the song playing in the background.
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Mixed reactions
Given that YouTube is the go-to platform for many people when searching for music, this search feature might be of major assistance.
According to TechCrunch, Google once explained how the feature relies on machine learning (ML) to match a person’s hum to their ‘fingerprint, or signature melody.
With news of the new feature, some users appear smitten and “can’t wait” to try it. Responding to a post about the feature on X (formerly Twitter) by Dexerto, an entertainment portal for eSports, gaming, and influencer news, some users said they were delighted and had been waiting for it for a long time.
“Now, I won’t be judged. Every time I used to ask people, ‘What song is this?’ And start humming; they’d look at me crazy! said one user identified as Yugi601.
Other users feel this “will be cool if it works”.
Another response from a user identified as Lakers Fanatic was: “Very cool to see ML use cases being slowly added to our everyday lives.” I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
YouTube is reportedly introducing the ability for users to find a song by humming 3 seconds of it pic.twitter.com/I4r5dGhOwU
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) August 24, 2023
The doubting Thomases
Not everyone is impressed with the news of the feature, as others feel it might not work as promised. Many feel their skills at humming might betray them.
“I won’t be able to find it then,” was another response on X.
Apart from doubting its capabilities, there are those who still prefer the old way of searching for songs by typing in the lyrics, while others feel YouTube is now outdated.
“Does anyone even watch YouTube anymore?” teased Sophiaaa.
Given that not many users are allowed to test this feature, there is not much testimony as to the accuracy and effectiveness of the feature, except for those who have been selected to try out this new feature.
According to YouTube support, they are also testing a new feature called Channel Shelf, a feature that can bundle multiple uploads from a single creator into a shelf in the subscription feed.
“We’re experimenting with this for a few reasons: as a way to make it easier for viewers to find the content they’re looking for, to put less pressure on creators to upload multiple times a day, and to make it simpler for viewers to engage with the content on the shelf and/or navigate to other content while scrolling in their feed.”
Similarly, like the search by song feature, the channel shelf feature testing is only available to a selected few.
and then