When you go out to a movie or restaurant, you probably hear music playing, to set the mood, to get you in the mood (for a film or a good meal, of course), or to simply keep you busy auditorially until the main event begins or shows up to take your order. But you have also likely wondered “Man, I know this song, but I can’t name it off the top of my head. Better check with Shazam/Soundhound/etc.” but had to do so by pulling out your phone and choosing the music-identifying app, then waiting for capture and results. Well, if you have Android Wear, you probably are extra peeved by this cumbersome process. Want a solution?
We’ve got one. XDA recognized developer kevdliu has one, technically. He has an app to introduce to you, called EchoWear Song Search.You can probably call it EchoWear for short; I certainly will. EchoWear is essentially Shazam on your Android Wear device. Not extended to your Android Wear; actually for your Android Wear. Specifically made to work from your Wear device of choice. What must be done to activate this super nifty feature and app?
First, you have to have an Android Wear device; that’s pretty obvious. Next, you have to go over to the thread for the app on the XDA Developers website and hit the download link to Google Play Store (or just search the app in the store yourself). Then just install the app. Say to your Android Wear: “Start Echo Search” and the music around you will be indexed and identified for your knowledge, recognition, or later-purchasing pleasures.
The app itself is new, but the system, the back-end, the recognition software and database it uses, isn’t so much. EchoWear Song Search is powered (regarding the song database) by GraceNote. So, it’s not using Shazam’s back-end, or Soundhound’s, or even the Google Play Store’s registry (used for Sound Search, which rarely works for spur-of-the-moment identification, so that’s good to know). The developer also is, as the title gives away, still developing and improving the app, as well as adding features and bits to it to make it an even better functioning and better looking experience.
The details for what features came from which version(s) of the app. Currently, the app is at version 1.2. and at this point, thanks to the 1.2 update the album art for the recognized song will show on your Wear device, as well as the duration of the song (which can help for knowing how much more of a great jam there is), and the always-lovely improvement in handling song names that aren’t simple and short. So now, you can see which album the song is from as well as read the long name of the song, and see how long the song is in relation to its name (which is always an interesting game to play with instrumental music like soundtracks and movie/video game scores). And the best part is that EchoWear Song Search is free! Go give it a download and let the developer know on his thread what works, what doesn’t, and anything else that will improve the app.
