Android’s Circle to Search will soon get Shazam-like powers for identifying songs and hummed tunes

Play, hum, or sing, and search

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Circle to Search is already quite a useful feature – allowing users of compatible phones (including theGoogle Pixel 8line and theSamsung Galaxy S24series) to circle objects and people on their screen, and have the phone conduct an AI-powered search for them. But soon, it looks set to also be able to identify audio.

We first saw evidence ofaudio identification coming to Circle to Searchback in June, but back then it was believed that this would only work with audio playing on your device. Now though,Android Authorityhas actually managed to activate the feature by digging around in code from the latestGoogleapp beta, and it seems this audio identification will be far more wide reaching than initially assumed.

When Android Authority activated the feature, which you can see happening in the video below, Circle to Search informed them that it can identify music that’s playing, or that you’re humming or singing.

So you can seemingly use it to identify music that’s playing on your device, playing externally, or that you’re simply humming or singing to your phone.

To use this functionality, you would have to launch Circle to Search as normal, and then tap the new music note icon that’s housed to the right of the search field. Or at least, that’s the current layout, but the feature isn’t active yet unless you mess around with Android code.

As such, it could change, and there’s always a chance this tool won’t even launch. But since it appears to be finished or close to, and would clearly be quite useful, we can’t see why Google wouldn’t launch it.

Could be coming soon, but not before the Pixel 9

The real question is when it will land, but withAndroid 15fast approaching, that’s a prime candidate. In which case, we might see this audio identification roll out sometime between now and October.

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Before that though, there’s theGoogle Pixel 9launch, which is happening today (August 13) at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST, which is August 14 at 3am AEST. So there’s lots on the way for fans of Google’s hardware and software.

To tune into the Pixel 9 launch – where we’re also expecting to see thePixel 9 Pro, the Pixel 9 Pro XL, and thePixel 9 Pro Fold, among other things – check outhow to watch the Pixel 9 launch event live. Or to read about all the announcements as they happen, along with our impressions, head to ourMade by Google live blog.

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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