TikTok launches hum- or sing-to-search feature, taking on YouTube Music and Shazam
TikTok is expanding its features with a new tool called ‘Sound Search,’ allowing users to identify songs by singing, humming, or playing them.
This new feature, confirmed by the video-sharing platform to TechCrunch, is TikTok’s answer to popular music identification apps like Shazam, and to YouTube Music‘s recently launched music search feature, which has similar functionalities to the TikTok tool. For the time being, the YouTube tool is only available to YouTube Music subscribers on iOS and Android.
Meanwhile, TikTok’s Sound Search is still in testing phases and available to only a limited number of users in specific regions. TechCrunch says the new tool could help users find and better understand current trends with TikTok’s song-based trends that change rapidly.
To access Sound Search, users can tap the microphone icon in the TikTok search bar and select the corresponding option.
Similar to YouTube Music’s song detection feature, Sound Search enables users to input a melody and receive song suggestions. However, TikTok’s tool goes a step further by directly linking identified songs to relevant TikTok videos.
Initial tests by TechCrunch reveal that Sound Search effectively recognizes popular songs frequently used on the platform. For instance, the tool accurately identified Rihanna’s Umbrella and the iconic “oh no oh no oh no no no” sound.
However, the tool showed limitations with less popular songs. When testing with Hilary Duff’s Fly, Sound Search identified the song but failed to show relevant videos, offering instead generic search results for the term “fly,” the news outlet said.
TikTok clarified to TechCrunch that Sound Search is designed for song identification rather than TikTok-specific sounds. Nevertheless, the tool has demonstrated the ability to recognize and process popular TikTok sounds and memes.
It remains unclear when TikTok plans to make Sound Search available to all users. However, given the importance of sounds in driving TikTok trends and the potential for this feature to boost song discovery, a wider release seems likely in the near future.
In addition to Sound Search, TikTok is testing several other features aimed at expanding its content capabilities. These include 60-minute video uploads, which allow creators to experiment with longer-form content, and ‘Sub Space,’ an exclusive chat room for paying fans, which was confirmed in February.
Moreover, in January, TikTok was reported to be testing a feature called ‘AI Song,’ which uses a large language model to generate song lyrics based on text inputs.
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