YouTube Music is testing out a feature it should’ve had all along

Remember the feature that was announced last October where you could hum a melody into YouTube and find the matching song? Well, it looks like Google is bringing the same feature to their music app – the place where you would think it would’ve appeared first. Nonetheless, Google is testing out a new feature that will allow users to find a song by just humming a tune in the YouTube Music app.

If you’ve used the “Hum to Search” tool in the regular YouTube app, I’m thinking this will be a similar experience. It looks like you will be able to tap a new waveform icon in the top right corner, then hum, whistle, or sing to search for a song. YouTube Music will then try its best to pinpoint the tune! This sort of feature is amazing when you have that random earworm nagging at you, but can’t remember any lyrics, which happens to me often. This icon was first spotted by a Reddit user on iOS (via 9to5Google) and is hopefully rolling out to all users soon.

If you’re a long-time Google fan, you might remember that Google Play Music offered this ages ago but has been absent from YouTube Music ever since GPM was phased out. And I’m not sure why it was added to YouTube before Google’s own music app – it seems like this should’ve been a feature on YouTube Music all along. There are actually several ways to find a song just by humming within Google: you can use the Google Assistant (not Gemini), Google Search, or “Now Playing” on Pixel phones. But hey, it’s still nice to see it coming to YouTube Music.

Regardless, it’s a welcome addition that feels right at home within the YouTube Music app. For now, it’s still not enough to pull me away from Spotify, with its fantastic cloud-based audio management and excellent device switching, but it’s good to see Google continue to improve the user experience and add new features to YouTube Music. Whether you’re a major music lover or just need help with occasional earworms, the “Hum to Search” feature on YouTube Music is a fun addition and will make it easier than ever to find songs without needing to open another app, like Shazam.