It has to be one of the most maddening experiences of all time. You hear a song that absolutely rocks the house, but you have no idea who is singing it or what the name of the song is. Fortunately, your smartphone comes to the rescue again with music recognition. In addition to smart assistants, there are a number of apps you can use to find out who is responsible for that earwig in your head. Here’s how to find a number using your phone.
Read more: 10 Best Music Recognition Apps for Android
RAPID RESPONSE
To find a number with your phone, you can use a smart assistant, such as Google Assistant or Siri. You can also use the Google search app, Shazam, Soundhound, or an Android feature called Now Playing.
SKIP TO IMPORTANT SECTIONS
Google Assistant (Android and iOS)
Google Assistant is the first smart assistant to recognize music lyrics, but it didn’t recognize my accent very well. Eventually the song got the right track as Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, but it gave me some other bizarre suggestions first.
As with anything with the Google Assistant, just say “Hey Google” followed by some of the lyrics and “what’s this song?”. If it recognizes it, it will give you its name and some web links. It would also recognize humming, but I had no luck with that. Obviously the best results will be with live background music it can listen to.
Google app (Android)
This is a much better Android alternative for finding a song, but unfortunately the iOS Google app is not. Tapping the microphone in the Google app search box will give you an option at the bottom of the screen to find a song† Play or sing the song and in seconds you will get Google search results with the YouTube video, lyrics and much more.
Siri (iOS)
Apple users will naturally be drawn to Siri and it does a great job with the song playing in the background. But if you sing or hum it, forget it. Siri will tell you in her very polite diplomatic voice that your singing is worthless and try again.
If it does find the song, you’ll get a direct link to open it in Apple Music, if you have an active subscription. It would be nice if it added Spotify support too, but I don’t think they’re going to promote their biggest rival.
Shazam (Android and iOS)
Shazam is the gold standard when it comes to music recognition, so it makes sense that Apple bought it and integrated it into Apple Music. It is also built into the newer iOS devices, accessible through the Control Center. However, you can also download the standalone app if you want, and if you have an active Apple Music subscription, anything you search for will automatically be added to a unique Shazam Apple playlist for you to listen to later.
However, it only recognizes real music – no humming – and I’ve had very limited success singing to it. Whether that’s a judgment on my singing or Shazam’s limitations, I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
Soundhound (Android and iOS)
If you are a buzzing person and have no idea what the lyrics of a song are, you should buy Soundhound. It specializes in recognizing songs by humming, and it has a surprisingly high success rate. I hummed the first few lines of Frank Sinatra’s My Way (not an obscure track, admittedly) and got it right away. But then I did a Scottish folk song and it got it. To say I am impressed would be an understatement.
Now playing (Google Pixel phones only)
If you have a Google Pixel phone with at least Android 10, you can also use a feature called Now Playing. However, Google says the 2016 Pixel does not have this feature.
To enable it, just go to Settings–>Sound & Vibration–>Now Playing† Switch on Identify songs playing nearby and a song database will be downloaded to your phone. Now whenever a song is playing in the background – even if your phone is locked – the song will be identified and its name will be placed on your lock screen.