You Can Now Search Songs on TikTok by Humming or Singing

TikTok is launching a new tool called “Sound Search” to compete with YouTube Music and Shazam. This feature lets users find songs by singing, humming, or playing a short part of the tune. The company has confirmed that it’s currently testing Sound Search in some countries.

Sound Search is a new way to discover music on TikTok. Since song trends change fast on the app, this tool could help people find and understand what’s popular. Once the tool becomes available, you can use it by tapping on TikTok’s search bar, tapping the microphone icon, then selecting “Sound Search.”

Here is what it looks like at the moment.

While Shazam is the biggest name in finding songs, TikTok and YouTube Music go further by letting you use your voice to find songs. For Shazam, you have to play the song itself to find it. But while Shazam and YouTube Music just tell you the song’s name, TikTok’s tool does more, also showing you videos using that sound.

However, as the feature is still in its testing phase, there are still some kinks that need to be ironed out. For instance, Sound Search does an impressive job at finding popular or trending songs on TikTok, along with the videos that use them, but struggles with less common music.

Upon TechCrunch’s testing, TikTok was able to find Hilary Duff’s song called “Fly”, but could not find popular videos that were using the song. TikTok told TechCrunch. 

TikTok says its new tool is just for finding songs, not TikTok sounds. But TechCrunch tried it and found it can also recognize famous TikTok sounds. For example, it knew the “Oh my gosh, she’s bald” sound from “Totally Spies” and the “Nobody’s gonna know” sound.