The classic “what song is that?” reflex assumes you can hold a microphone up to a speaker. But the harder problem — the song stuck in your head with no lyrics you can remember and nothing playing nearby — is the one most apps still get wrong. Shazam, the brand most people reach for, still cannot identify a song from humming or singing in 2026. SoundHound has been able to do it for over a decade. Google added the same capability to its core Search app a few years ago and YouTube Music followed.
This list covers every Android app that genuinely identifies a song from a hummed, sung, or whistled melody, plus a few that come close. We tested each one with the same protocol: hum the opening of an obscure but well-charted song for ten seconds, then a clearer chorus of a recent hit, then a melody most people would call “easy.”
Quick comparison
| App | Hum / sing search | Whistle works | Free | Result depth | Speed to playback |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google app | Yes | Yes | Yes | Search-page card | One tap to YouTube |
| SoundHound | Yes | Yes | Yes (with ads) | Full song page with lyrics | One tap to Spotify (linked) |
| YouTube Music | Yes | Partial | Yes (with ads) | Full track + queue | Instant in-app playback |
| Shazam | No | No | Yes | N/A | N/A |
| Musixmatch | No (lyrics-based search) | No | Yes (with ads) | Lyric-line match | Floating lyrics overlay |
| Genius | No (lyrics-based) | No | Yes | Annotated page | Link to streaming |
| Spotify | No (lyric search) | No | Yes (Premium) | Track + queue | In-app |
Which app should you use?
- Google app for the cleanest, free, no-ads hum-to-search — built into Search, no extra install.
- SoundHound if you want the most accurate hum/sing engine and a richer post-identification page.
- YouTube Music if you already stream there and want instant playback after identifying.
- Musixmatch if a lyric line is what you remember, not the melody.
- Genius for the same lyric-line search plus context after identification.
- Spotify for lyric snippet search baked into the streaming app you already pay for.
Shazam is on this list only to set expectations — it cannot identify a song from your voice. If that is what you need, install SoundHound or use Google’s Hum to Search.
1. Google app — free, no ads, Hum to Search inside Search
Hum to Search is built into the Google app. Tap the microphone in the Search bar, say “what’s this song” or simply tap the dedicated music button, then hum, sing, or whistle for around ten seconds. Google compares the melodic contour against a learned model — not a fingerprint database — so timing and pitch only need to be roughly right.
The result lands as a Search-page card with the song title, artist, album, and one-tap routes into YouTube, YouTube Music, and shopping. There are no ads. The Hum to Search feature reaches as far back as 2020 catalog and continues to learn from anonymous queries.
Advantages:
- Free, no ads, no premium tier
- Hum, sing, or whistle — all three work
- Identifies playing audio as well, in the same flow
- Result is a full Search card with links to YouTube, YouTube Music, lyrics, and shopping
- Available on virtually every Android phone
Disadvantages:
- Catalogue skews toward charted and Western releases
- Result is a Search card, not an in-app music page
- Cannot save results to a personal “identified” library
Pricing: Free.
2. SoundHound — the most accurate hum and sing engine
SoundHound invented this category. The app has been matching hummed melodies since 2009, before Apple bought Shazam, and the engine has only sharpened. Press the big orange button, hum or sing for a few seconds, and the result page opens with the full track, album, artist info, and lyrics. Whistling works too.
The hands-free trigger — “Hey SoundHound, what’s that song?” — is a feature no other app on this list offers. Repeated queries in the same session feel faster than Google’s Hum to Search.
Advantages:
- Hum, sing, or whistle search — the most reliable engine in our tests
- Hands-free “Hey SoundHound” voice trigger
- Full song page with lyrics, biography, similar tracks
- Personal history saves every identification
- Spotify account link lets you build playlists from finds
Disadvantages:
- Free tier shows ads
- Interface is busier than Google’s clean Search card
- Premium upsell appears after long sessions
Pricing: Free with ads. SoundHound Premium ($6.99/month or $35.99/year) removes ads.
3. YouTube Music — hum and play in the same app
YouTube Music’s search bar has a microphone icon that does two jobs: it accepts spoken queries and it accepts hummed melodies. Hum for around ten seconds and the app finds candidate tracks, ranks them, and plays the best match — all within the same screen. For people who already subscribe to YouTube Music, this is the shortest path from “I have a tune in my head” to “I am listening to it.”
The engine is closely related to Google’s Hum to Search but the UX is built around playback rather than a results card. Whistling works to a degree; sustained vocal humming is the most reliable input.
Advantages:
- Hum, then play — no app switching
- Identification ties straight into a queue and recommendations
- Per-track lyrics tab on most major releases
- Free with ads, no separate install on most Android phones
Disadvantages:
- Free tier ads can interrupt right after identification
- Whistling is less reliable than humming
- Background playback requires YouTube Music Premium
Pricing: Free with ads. Premium (around $10.99/month) removes ads.
4. Musixmatch — search by a lyric line you remember
Musixmatch is not a hum-to-search app, but it solves an adjacent problem so well that it earns a spot here. If what you remember is a lyric line rather than a melody, type the snippet into Musixmatch and it finds the song. The Floating Lyrics overlay can also be summoned over any streaming app to display synced words for the currently playing track.
For singers and songwriters, the lyric-line approach often beats melody humming — particularly for ballads, hip-hop, and country, where the words land harder than the tune.
Advantages:
- Lyric-line search across millions of tracks
- Word-by-word synced lyrics on the free tier
- Floating Lyrics overlays Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music
- Translation in 50+ languages
Disadvantages:
- No real hum-to-search engine
- Free tier shows ads
- Lyric matches need a few accurate words to land
Pricing: Free with ads. Premium ~$4.99/month removes ads and unlocks offline lyrics.
5. Genius — lyric search plus context
Genius also supports lyric-line search. The bonus is what you get on the result page — annotations by verified artists and millions of fans explaining each line, sample, and reference. For a hummed song you cannot quite place but for which one phrase keeps echoing, Genius often finds the track and then reveals why it is stuck in your head.
Free, with light banner ads, and a friendly interface for sharing or saving lyrics.
Advantages:
- Lyric-line search across the largest annotated catalogue online
- Verified artist annotations on every hit
- Free, light ad load
- Notification access surfaces lyrics for streaming apps
Disadvantages:
- No melody matching at all
- Annotation depth varies for non-Western music
- No translation features
Pricing: Free.
6. Spotify — search by lyric snippet inside playback
Spotify added lyric search to its main search bar a couple of years ago. Type a remembered line and the app returns tracks where the lyric appears, ranked by popularity. This is not hum-to-search, but it is the fastest path inside a streaming app you may already pay for. Spotify Premium also unlocks the lyric panel during playback.
Advantages:
- Lyric search inside the streaming app
- Identified track plays in-app immediately
- Personalised based on your existing library
Disadvantages:
- Requires a few accurate words to match
- No melody, hum, or whistle support
- Best results need Spotify Premium
Pricing: Free with ads. Premium starts at $11.99/month.
How hum-to-search actually works
When you hum a song, you produce a melodic contour — a sequence of relative pitches and rhythmic intervals. Speech recognition tools cannot decode this on their own. Hum-to-search engines extract that contour from your microphone input, compress it into a compact embedding, then match it against a library of similar embeddings derived from real tracks.
The catch is that the system has to be tolerant. People hum off-key, swap notes, change rhythm, and stop in the middle. Models like Google’s are trained on noisy, imperfect inputs precisely to forgive these mistakes. SoundHound built its own embedding model years earlier on a smaller dataset, and the engine has compensated with feature engineering — pitch normalisation, dynamic time warping, melodic-contour clustering.
The practical takeaway: hum the most distinctive phrase of the song for around ten seconds. Sing the melody with “na” or “da” syllables rather than the wrong words. Repeat the phrase twice if the first try fails. Both Google and SoundHound improve on the second attempt if you hum more of the song.
Frequently asked questions
Can Shazam recognize humming? No. Shazam still requires the original audio recording to be playing nearby. In 2026 there is no humming or singing mode in either the iOS or the Android app.
Which app is best for humming a song? SoundHound is the most reliable across our test playlist. Google’s Hum to Search is close behind and has zero ads. For songs you cannot hum but can quote a lyric from, Musixmatch and Genius work best.
Can I identify a song by whistling? Yes, both SoundHound and Google’s Hum to Search accept whistled input. Whistling produces a cleaner pitch contour than humming for many people, which can help on slower melodies. YouTube Music handles whistling less consistently.
Why does my hum-to-search sometimes fail? The most common reason is that you stopped too soon — most engines need around ten seconds of audio to lock onto a contour. Background noise, off-key humming, and very obscure tracks are the other usual culprits. Try the chorus rather than the verse and hum for a longer stretch.
Do hum-to-search apps work offline? No. Every melody-matching engine on this list sends your audio (or a compressed embedding of it) to a server. Pixel Now Playing does on-device identification but only from actual playing audio, not from humming.
Related reading on Unstore Discover
- Best Shazam alternatives in 2026 (we compared 7) — full alternatives roundup
- Best free Shazam alternatives for Android in 2026 — when “free” is the constraint
- Shazam vs SoundHound vs Musixmatch 2026 — accuracy, hum-to-search, lyrics, privacy
- Best lyrics apps for Android — when you remember the words, not the tune
- Best apps for discovering new music on Android — where to find your next favourite song
Hum-to-search has matured fast. Google and SoundHound trade the top spot depending on the song; Shazam still does not compete in this category at all. If you mostly forget melodies, install SoundHound. If you mostly forget titles for songs you can still hum, the Google app already on your phone covers it for free.
