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How familiar are you with apps like Shazam and SoundHound? If you haven't heard of them, what they essentially do is allow you to hold your iPhone or iPad up to a speaker that's playing music and they will "listen" to the song and be able to identify the name of it for you. These types of apps are perfect for when you need to know what a song is called or who it's by when you're in, say, your car, among other places.

Well, what if you could take that same basic idea and apply it to your television viewing experience? Now you can, with IntoNow. IntoNow is a very impressive iOS app that listens to the TV shows you're watching and tells you the exact episode it is, allowing you to share the kinds of shows you're watching with your friends. How does it work?

What Is IntoNow?

Here's a description taken from IntoNow's FAQ page:

IntoNow is a consumer tech company that aims to enhance the way people engage with each other around the shows they love. Based on the SoundPrint platform, IntoNow gives users the ability to almost instantly recognize TV content and then helps them share and discuss those shows with friends, both within the product and through other social streams such as Facebook and Twitter.

We've previously written about apps like GetGlue and Miso, which allow you to check into the shows and movies you're watching in order to share them with your friends, earn badges, and other cool stuff. Those apps, however, require you to tell them what show you're watching, while IntoNow can just do it magically on its own.

How Does IntoNow Work?

IntoNow (App Store link) is a game-changer. It makes engaging your favorite TV shows easy, social, and fun. Just tap the green button when your favorite show is on and IntoNow will identify the episode, provide data and links associated with it, and help you share the information on Facebook and Twitter.

You can also see which shows you have in common with your friends, including whether they've seen the latest episode of whatever show you're both watching. It even alerts you whenever you and a friend are watching the same show at the same time.

IntoNow, which is based on the SoundPrint platform, analyzes the ambient audio being generated from your television in three second increments. The audio is then converted into a fingerprint of sorts, which is a unique ID that is then matched with IntoNow's huge database of information. Metadata associated with the show (and episode), like title, description, cast, etc., are then returned.

More Great Features

Not completely sold on IntoNow just yet? Here's some more great features for you.

IntoNow gives you the ability to identify live TV, or anything that's run on TV in the last five years, from your television, computer, or mobile device. It gives you full episode and cast information, as well as information on future airings.

You can receive notifications when your friends are watching the same episode as you, as well as comment on what they're watching in the app, or on Facebook/Twitter. Friends can be added to the app via Facebook, Twitter, your address book, or search by name.

Lastly, you get one-click access to IMDB, Netflix, and iTunes so you can learn more or start watching right away.

Conclusion

IntoNow is available on iOS devices and requires wireless access (either WiFi or 3G) and a microphone to work. It works with any cable or satellite provider as long as the channels are covered by their index. If you missed the download link above, you can get IntoNow here.

I'm a big fan of this app and all of the buzz I've been hearing about it, as well as this type of application in general. There are recent studies out there stating that a large number of people access their smartphones while watching television, and this is the type of app that can directly take advantage of that. If I were a company like GetGlue or Miso, or a provider of television content, I would partner with (or buy) IntoNow immediately. What do you think of this type of application?