[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTA0V2pTFHA?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

SoundHound have added a voice controlled virtual assistant to their mobile app to make browsing music easier than ever.

SoundHound’s new update helps to set them apart from their often compared competitor Shazam. With a simple “Ok Hound” you can take control of the SoundHound app and listen to music from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music and play music videos.

That’s not all you can do however. Add songs to playlists by saying “Ok Hound, add Hotline Bling to my Spotify Playlist” – assumably you can say specific playlists, and it doesn’t have to be Hotline Bling. SoundHound’s voice controlled assistant can also provide you with music trivia like “how old is Mick Jagger” (spoiler: very) or “what was Rihanna’s most recent song?” and more.

SoundHound vice president and general manager, Katie McMahon said: “We are creating a future where we speak naturally to connected devices, starting with our mobile phones and the apps we love. By incorporating ‘OK Hound’ within the SoundHound music app, we bring the power and elegance of our speech-to-meaning technology to our music fans.”

soundhound houndify ai

You can even ask SoundHound to identify the song you’re humming, and then hum it, and then it finds the song if you’re humming is up to scratch. It’s AI software is taken from the company’s Houndify platform which they made available earlier this year.  Whilst it’s capabilities might not quite match Siri it does do things that Siri can’t, so it’s still unique.

At the moment SoundHound’s voice update is only available in the US for iOS and Android devices. For other countries I’m sure SoundHound are planning to introduce voice functions to you as soon as they can.