Facebook Adds Audio Recognition (Shazam Style) for its users

Facebook announced that its new Audio Recognition feature will allow users to search for a song and listen on the social network. The company also said it plans to use AI to automatically identify songs in uploaded videos, which has led many people wondering if they should ditch Facebook entirely.

Facebook recently announced that it will be adding audio recognition (Shazam Style) to its service. This means that users can now find the song used in a video on Facebook.

In the struggle against Twitter to host profitable media discussions, Facebook has a new weapon. On Wednesday, the firm announced that its mobile app would have an ear for music, film, and television program soundtracks.

The iOS and Android status composers are getting a Shazam opt-in feature that may activate the microphone on the user’s phone. It detects a TV program or music that the user is viewing or listening to and adds a tag to the News Feed article. Friends may also see a 30-second teaser of music or a link to a TV show’s Facebook page.

“When composing a status post – if you choose to turn the function on – you’ll have the ability to utilize your phone’s microphone to determine what music is playing or what program or movie is on TV,” said Aryeh Selekman, the product manager. “So you can prevent spoilers,” Selekman said, the information added to articles about well-known TV programs would specify which episode was seen.

The voice recognition tool was developed by Facebook over the previous year and will soon be available to iOS and Android users in the United States. It’s an expansion of the past year’s sentiments and activities sharing option, which can be found in the status composer’s small emoticon symbol. According to Facebook, 5 billion postings have shared how you’re feeling (example: excited, exhausted), what you’re doing (example: drinking coffee, playing basketball), or what movie/song/show you’re watching. With the audio ID, Facebook hopes to make the last activity type much simpler to post since users won’t have to know the name of the song or program, nor will they have to write it in.

If users enable the functionality, when they access the status composer, they will see a little audio levels indication that can recognize any of millions of songs or TV programmes on 160 channels (U.S.-only). The music or program will then appear in a list of activities from which you may pick, and you can add it to the post with a single click. If users do not enable it, their Facebook experience will remain unchanged.

One flaw is that Facebook’s music library is currently restricted, and it is unable to recognize more obscure or less well-known tunes. It also can’t tell what you’re listening to on your phone’s headphones; just what is heard is permitted.

The introduction might mean difficulties for audio ID giants such as SoundHound and Shazam, the industry leader with 90 million users.

Audio ID is Facebook’s second opt-in new feature in a month, demonstrating the company’s dedication to privacy. Facebook’s ability to switch on your phone’s microphone will undoubtedly fuel worries that the business is eavesdropping everyone. Facebook claims, however, that it will only listen for music and television, not voices or other background noise, and that no recordings would be stored.