Skip to main content

Messaging has been made musical thanks to Bars, which detects song lyrics from texts

The Messaging market is pretty saturated right now — between Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Google’s innumerable messaging apps, there are plenty of ways to get in touch with your friends. That, however, has not stopped the creators of online collaboration website Soundslates from coming up with Bars, a new messaging platform that uses song lyrics to communicate.

The premise is really quite simple — you chat with your friends as your normally would, however you can quickly add song lyrics to your messages through the smart algorithm, which recognizes text as lyrics. You only need to type out a few of those lyrics in order for a song to be recognized, and the app will then show you a list of songs the lyrics could possibly derive from. Choose the right song, hit send, and the receiver of the text can view the entire song lyrics as well as hear a preview of the song itself.

Recommended Videos

“This all started between me and my brother. As we would text and talk everyday, we would send each other lyrics over and over again. That’s where this idea came from,” said Pierre Seylan, co-founder of Bars, in an email to Digital Trends. “We decided to put what we had going on hold , and go through with this idea. What we wanted to try and do was to reinvent casual texting.”

bars
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Of course, Bars isn’t the only musical messaging platform out there — it seems like every year a new one pops up only to be quickly forgotten. Last year, for example, we got Rithm, aimed at speeding up musical recommendation. So what does Bars offer that other messaging apps don’t?

“Bars has a catalog of songs containing over 1M songs. We also came up with a lyric search system which enables even the most novice music fans to find bars through our database,” continued Seylan in this email. “We plan on adding many features which we believe will turn this app into the go-to music lovers app.”

It’s hard to imagine Bars, like other messaging apps, capturing the same user base as the likes of Facebook Messenger — but it’s not hard to imagine it gaining some die-hard fans. Bars is available on iOS now, with an Android version coming soon.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
OnePlus makes Apple Watch owners jealous with novel charging cable
Apple owners are having to pay a lot more for the privilage
A OnePlus smartwatch being connected to the POGO pin on the OnePlus 2-in-1 charging cable

Update 07/16: we've now included mention of Nomad's 2-in-1 charger for iPhone and Apple Watch

Look, I get it. Charging cables aren't exactly the sexiest product in the tech world and I'd forgive you for rolling your eyes - but OnePlus has introduced a new cable at a price point which makes it way more accessible than rivals.

Read more
Google Pixel 10 launch date confirmed with multiple devices teased
The Pixel 10 launch is just a few weeks away
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9's screens.

Invites have gone out for the Google Pixel 10 launch event, along with a tease that there will be more than one product announced.

Google will hold its Made by Google event on August 20, with the invite reading "you're invited to an in-person Made by Google show where we'll introduce the latest additions to our Pixel portfolio of devices." The event kicks off at 1pm ET, 10am PT.

Read more
This leaked iPhone 17 Pro color has me excited for the iPhone 17 Pro
A close-up of the cameras on the iPhone 16 Pro.

I've been reporting on technology for almost twenty years, and I vividly recall the early years of the smartphone industry when companies like Nokia pushed the boundaries when it came to smartphone colors. 

Rather than the less exciting neutral colors that have become standard in the industry — gray, white, silver, and gold — Nokia launched phones in bright red, yellow, and other vibrant colors. Yes, there were still the same standardized options, but you also had bright neon colors, such as the yellow Lumia 1020 or the orange Nokia N8. 

Read more