Is there an app like Shazam for Android?
Introducing Shazam
Shazam is an application that can identify songs, movies, TV shows, and advertisements based on a short sample played and captured through the microphone on a device. It was created by London-based company Shazam Entertainment Limited and launched in 2002 as a call-in service. The mobile app debuted in 2008 and quickly gained popularity as a handy music discovery tool (Wikipedia, 2022).
Shazam works by analyzing the acoustic fingerprint of a song and matching it against a centralized database of media content to find a match. The app is able to identify the song title, artist, album, lyrics, and related information within seconds. Shazam also provides links to streaming music services, Youtube videos, and more. With over 1 billion downloads, Shazam has become one of the most widely-used music discovery apps worldwide.
The core functionality that sets Shazam apart is its ability to quickly identify music and media playing in the user’s environment. This gives people a way to instantly satisfy their curiosity and learn more about the content around them. Whether at a party, café, or browsing the radio, Shazam enables users to easily discover new music and engage more meaningfully with the media world.
Shazam on iOS
Shazam has been available for iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad for over a decade. The Shazam app uses the microphone on iOS devices to listen to music playing nearby and identify the song title and artist in just a few seconds. Once a song is recognized, Shazam provides links to play the full song on Apple Music or Spotify and view lyrics, videos, and related content.
On iOS, Shazam is integrated into Siri so you can ask “What song is this?” to identify music without needing to open the Shazam app. Shazam also integrates with Control Center on iOS so you can quickly launch it by pressing and holding the Shazam icon. Your Shazam history is saved in the app so you can go back and view all the songs and media you’ve discovered.
Overall, Shazam provides a seamless music recognition experience on iOS that makes discovering and learning more about new music incredibly simple. It offers deep integration across Apple’s ecosystem.
Shazam on Android
Shazam has an official app available for Android devices on the Google Play store. According to the Google Play listing, the Shazam app can identify songs playing around you or in other apps, even with headphones on. It lets you discover song titles, artists, lyrics, and upcoming concerts for free.
The Android app provides the core Shazam song recognition functionality users expect. You can tap the app to use Shazam to identify music playing around you. It will display the song title and artist if it finds a match. You can then listen to song previews, view lyrics, add songs to Spotify or Apple Music playlists, share discovered songs on social media, and more.
Shazam is available as a free download for Android devices. The app does contain ads and offers in-app purchases for additional features like auto Shazam and unlimited song recognition. However, the core song identification capabilities work without any purchases required.
Alternative Android Apps
While Shazam is available on Android, there are several alternative apps on Android that also offer song recognition functionality similar to Shazam on iOS. Some of the most popular alternatives to Shazam on Android include:
SoundHound – This app can recognize music, TV shows, and more. It offers a hands-free “Houndify” voice search as well as a lyric sync feature. SoundHound claims to have the world’s fastest music recognition technology.
Musixmatch – This app focuses on song lyrics more than music recognition. It has a large lyrics catalog and floating lyrics over music. You can also get song translations with Musixmatch.
TrackID – Developed by Sony, TrackID can identify songs just like Shazam. It has over 30 million tracks in its database. TrackID offers integrated YouTube search and Spotify integration.
ACR Cloud – ACR offers audio recognition for broadcast media monitoring in addition to music recognition. It claims to recognize challenging audio like classical music better than other apps.
AudioTag – This app focuses on offline audio recognition so you don’t need an internet connection. It also integrates with Spotify and YouTube.
Overall, Android users have many high quality apps that can identify music similarly to Shazam. Apps like SoundHound, TrackID, Musixmatch, ACR Cloud, and AudioTag offer robust song recognition and additional features beyond just identifying songs from short audio clips.
SoundHound
SoundHound is one of the most popular apps like Shazam for Android. It offers music discovery and recognition through singing, humming, or singing a song. SoundHound uses advanced audio recognition technology to identify songs with speed and accuracy.
Some key features of SoundHound on Android include:
- Supports identifying songs by singing or humming into your phone’s microphone
- Large music recognition database with over 100 million songs
- Real-time lyrics that scroll in sync with the music
- Integration with services like Spotify to play full songs
- Personalized recommendations based on your music taste
SoundHound is free to download on Google Play for Android devices. The free version contains ads, but otherwise has full functionality. An ad-free version called SoundHound ∞ is available as a paid upgrade.
For those looking for a capable Shazam alternative on Android, SoundHound is worth considering with its fast and accurate song recognition, lyrics support, and integration with music services.
Musixmatch
Musixmatch is one of the most popular lyrics apps for Android that can act as an alternative to Shazam. It has over 80 million users and provides real-time synced lyrics for songs playing on platforms like YouTube, Spotify, Pandora and more (source).
Musixmatch uses advanced audio recognition technology to identify songs and display lyrics in real-time as you listen. It has an extensive catalog of over 8 million songs and adds new music constantly. You can float the lyrics over other apps or view them full screen while listening.
Beyond synced lyrics, Musixmatch provides song info like release date, featured artists, album covers and more. You can also save your favorite songs and access them offline. The app is free on Android with optional in-app purchases for premium features like removing ads and accessing advanced lyric translations (source).
Overall, Musixmatch provides a comprehensive Shazam-like experience tailored for lyrics, making it a top alternative on Android.
TrackID
TrackID by Sony Mobile is an Android app that allows users to identify songs, similar to Shazam. According to the Google Play store listing, TrackID is an app that “will take a few seconds to identify the song name, give you results about the artist biographies, let you play the song, you can create playlists and much more” (Google Play).
TrackID uses audio fingerprinting technology to identify songs by listening to a short sample and matching it against a database of music. Once a song is identified, TrackID provides artist, album and song title information, as well as lyric search, YouTube music videos and links to music streaming services (Uptodown).
Originally launched in the early 2000s for Sony Ericsson feature phones, TrackID has been available for Android since 2008 and remains a popular Shazam alternative today (Wikipedia). Key features include identifying music playing nearby, music search by lyrics, viewing top international charts, creating playlists and sharing music discoveries.
ACR Cloud
ACRCloud is an alternative Shazam-like music and audio recognition app for Android. According to the ACRCloud website, ACRCloud offers “Automatic Content Recognition services for Audio Fingerprinting based music recognition.” Like Shazam, the ACRCloud app can quickly identify songs playing in your environment and provide metadata about the track and artist.
Some key features of ACRCloud for Android include:
- Real-time music recognition by listening to music playback
- Identifying songs from recorded audio clips
- Providing song title, artist name, album name, and other metadata
- Spotify integration to save recognized songs
- SoundHound integration for lyrics display
- Over 60 million songs in the recognition database
ACRCloud provides an Android SDK to integrate their recognition technology into any mobile app. Developers can use the SDK for audio fingerprinting, indexing, search and metadata retrieval.
Overall, ACRCloud offers robust music recognition capabilities similar to Shazam on Android. Its integration options and large recognition database make it a popular alternative.
AudioTag
AudioTag is another Android app like Shazam that can identify songs playing around you. Developed by Anthonio, AudioTag has a free and paid version available on the Google Play Store (AudioTag.info).
Similar to Shazam, AudioTag listens to music through your phone’s microphone and matches it against an extensive catalog of over 50 million songs. Once matched, it will display the song title and artist information. You can also view additional song data like the album, release year, genre, and more.
Where AudioTag differs from Shazam is it allows you to directly edit the song’s ID3 tags after identifying a track. You can fix any incorrect metadata and add album covers and lyrics. There is also an online music recognition service at AudioTag.info that identifies songs from audio file uploads.
Overall, AudioTag provides a solid Shazam alternative on Android with the additional ability to edit audio tags.
Conclusion
In summary, there are several good alternatives to Shazam available for Android users looking for apps to identify music and lyrics. Some of the top options include SoundHound, Musixmatch, TrackID, ACR Cloud, and AudioTag.
Of these, SoundHound stands out as the best overall Shazam alternative on Android. It offers highly accurate and quick music recognition, with a comprehensive music and lyrics database. SoundHound also provides unique voice search features not found in Shazam. Other advantages include its free ad-supported version, Android Auto support, and synchronization across devices.
While apps like Musixmatch, TrackID, and ACR Cloud have their own strengths, SoundHound matches or exceeds their capabilities while providing a closer overall experience to Shazam. With its competitive accuracy, fast recognition, lyrics support, and useful voice features, SoundHound is recommended as the top Shazam alternative for Android users.