That melody playing constantly in your head has you eager to know what it is. You were listening to a radio station and heard music that caught your attention, so you want to know its name to add it to your music library. Google offers the ability to identify music tracks and songs just by listening to a small part of the actual track, or by humming the melody, or even whistling if you’re good at it.
While it is possible to invoke Google Assistant and simply ask about the song, this post discusses another way to launch this service: the “sound search” widget.
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What is the sound search widget?
The sound search widget is a widget in the Google app that you add to your home screen to launch the online song identification Google service.
How to add the widget:
The method of adding widgets to your home screen depends on the launcher you are using. If the launcher supports screen reader actions, the process will be simple. Just focus on the Google app, either on your home screen or in the apps list, and use actions to select “shortcuts,” and then “widgets.” This may vary, so you could have widgets directly when using actions. If actions are not supported, try long-pressing the app and see if widgets or shortcuts appear.
Another way to reach widgets is by using screen reader actions on the apps list icon, or in other cases, like with Lawnchair beta, the item labeled as “home.” There, you should find widgets that will open the list of apps that have widgets. Simply tap on Google to reveal its widgets and focus on sound search.
Also, with actions, after focusing on sound search, select “add to home screen.” If this is not supported, you have to long-press the widget and move your finger to put it on the home screen. Finding the exact position in this case might be hard, but you could still move the widget after adding it anyway.
Do any recommended additional steps like granting the launcher any necessary permissions.
Using the widget:
When the widget is on your home screen, using it is straightforward. Just activate the widget called “sound search,” and listening should start immediately.
Play a part of the track, sing it, or just whistle it. After a few seconds, you will be given the matching results with the matching percentage for each one. You can navigate the list of results and tap whatever you want from them to open a Google search page. This page may open directly in certain cases if the service is completely sure about the identified song or music. The search results should normally contain information about the track as well as links to listen to it on services like YouTube, YouTube Music, and Spotify. If the service could not find a match, you will be told that no match was found.
How reliable is the service:
During testing, the service showed very good identification results. It can identify tracks across different languages and can even identify them with a very small portion of the tracks. You don’t need to be consistent in your humming of the melody; it is enough to get it right a little bit and let Google do the magic.
A good news for Jieshuo screen reader users, there is no observed compatibility issue when Jieshuo is using the accessibility volume, unlike the case with Google Assistant that has some serious compatibility problems with Jieshuo recently.
The Google sound search widget is a nice free addition that you can have on your home screen to be utilized whenever that vague melody occupies your mind and prevents you from focusing on anything else.
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