On an iPhone, the most reliable route is the Google app: tap the Lens (camera) icon in the search bar and pick a photo from your library. On Android, use Circle to Search or the Lens button in Google Photos or Chrome. In any mobile browser you can also long-press an image on a web page, or upload a saved photo to a search site that accepts uploads.
Which route is best depends less on your phone and more on what you want to find. Google Lens is strong at objects, places, products and widely shared images. A copy-oriented engine such as TinEye is better at finding exact reposts. A face search engine looks for other photos of the same face, which is a different job. If you are unsure which you need, read face search vs reverse image search first.
Quick answer: which method to use
| What you have | iPhone | Android |
|---|---|---|
| A photo saved in your library | Google app, Lens icon, choose photo | Google Photos, open photo, Lens button |
| An image on a web page | Chrome: long-press image, Search image with Google Lens | Chrome: long-press image, Search image with Google Lens |
| Something on screen in any app | Screenshot, then search it in the Google app | Circle to Search on supported phones |
| A picture you want to identify (plant, landmark, artwork) | Photos app Visual Look Up | Google Lens or Circle to Search |
| A face you need to check (dating match, scammer, your own photos) | Upload to a face search engine in Safari | Upload to a face search engine in Chrome |
Menu labels change between app versions, so treat the wording below as a guide rather than an exact script. Google keeps its own instructions current on the Search with an image help page for iPhone and the same page for Android.
Reverse image search on iPhone
Google app (the most reliable route)
- Install the free Google app from the App Store and open it.
- Tap the Lens icon (a camera shape) at the right of the search bar.
- Allow photo access when asked. Choose Limited Access if you only want Google to see the photos you pick.
- Select the photo. Lens searches the whole image and shows visual matches below it.
- Drag the corners of the selection box to focus on one object or one face, and the results update.
- Scroll down to the results and open the source pages, not just the thumbnails.
If the photo you want is not in the picker, see the section on the photo picker below. If Lens shows only shopping results, tap Exact matches or Visual matches (where offered) to see pages that contain the same image.
Chrome for iPhone
Chrome has Lens built in, which is handy when the image is already on a web page.
- Open the page in Chrome.
- Press and hold the image.
- Tap Search Image with Google Lens (on some versions, Search Image with Google).
- Results open in a new tab.
To search a photo from your library in Chrome, tap the Lens icon in the address bar or on the New Tab page and pick the photo.
Safari
Safari has no reverse image search of its own. You have three options:
- Go to the search site and upload. Open google.com, bing.com or tineye.com in Safari and tap the camera or upload icon. Safari uses the system photo picker, which shows your library without granting the website permanent access.
- Request the desktop site. If a site hides its upload control on mobile, tap the aA button in the address bar, then Request Desktop Website. The desktop layout usually shows the camera icon.
- Share a web image to the Google app. Press and hold the image, choose Save to Photos, then search it with the Google app.
To use Facehunch from Safari, open the search app, choose a photo and confirm you have permission to search it. Facehunch accepts JPG, PNG and WebP files up to 10 MB, and one clear face works best.
Photos app: Visual Look Up and Visual Intelligence
Apple's Photos app can recognise what is in a picture: landmarks, plants, pets, artwork, books and some products. Open a photo and look for an info button with a small star; tap it, then tap the Look Up result. This is identification, not reverse image search. It will tell you a flower is a hellebore, not which websites have posted your photo.
On iPhones with Apple Intelligence, Visual Intelligence can send what is on screen or in the camera view to Google image search. It is a shortcut to the same Google results, so the advice about reading source pages still applies.
Reverse image search on Android
Circle to Search
On supported phones (recent Pixel and Samsung Galaxy models and a growing list of others), Circle to Search works on anything on screen, in any app.
- Open the image you want to search: a chat, a profile, a video, a web page.
- Press and hold the home button, or the navigation handle at the bottom if you use gesture navigation.
- Circle, scribble over or tap the part of the screen you want to search.
- Results appear in a panel. Swipe it up to see more and tap a result to open its page.
If nothing happens, check that Circle to Search is switched on in your phone's settings (the location varies by manufacturer; search Settings for "Circle to Search").
Google Photos and the Google app
- Open the photo in Google Photos.
- Tap the Lens button at the bottom of the screen.
- Adjust the selection box and scroll to the results.
The Google app works the same way as on iPhone: tap the Lens icon in the search bar and pick a photo. Samsung Gallery and other manufacturer galleries often have their own visual search button, but the menus differ, so the Google route is the most predictable.
Chrome for Android
Press and hold an image on any web page and tap Search image with Google Lens. For a photo in your gallery, tap the Lens icon in Chrome's search box on the New Tab page.
Other engines on Android
Bing, TinEye and face search sites work in Chrome or any mobile browser through their upload buttons. When the mobile page offers no upload, open the browser menu and tick Desktop site.
HEIC photos: the iPhone format problem
Since iOS 11, iPhones save photos as HEIC by default (the setting is Settings > Camera > Formats > High Efficiency). Many search tools do not accept HEIC uploads. Renaming the file to .jpg does nothing, because the encoding inside the file stays the same.
In practice you often will not notice. When a website's upload control accepts only JPG, PNG or WebP, Safari usually converts a HEIC photo to JPEG as you pick it. Problems appear when you share a file through the Files app, AirDrop it to a computer or upload from a cloud folder.
Ways to get a JPEG copy:
- Screenshot the photo. Open it full screen and take a screenshot. It saves as PNG. Quick, but you lose some resolution, so crop the screenshot to the picture.
- Use Shortcuts. Create a shortcut with the Convert Image action set to JPEG and run it from the share sheet.
- Convert on a computer. On a Mac, open the file in Preview and use File > Export with JPEG as the format. The Mac and Windows guide covers Windows.
- Change future photos. Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible makes new photos save as JPEG. It uses more storage.
Keep the original HEIC. If a search later needs the best possible quality, you can export again from the original rather than from a converted copy.
Android phones mostly save JPEG, but some newer models offer HEIF or "high efficiency" photo settings in the camera app. The same fix applies: export a JPEG copy.
When the photo picker cannot find your image
The search service is rarely the problem here. The file is usually stored somewhere the picker is not looking.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Photo missing in the Google app picker (iPhone) | You granted Limited Access | Settings > Privacy & Security > Photos > Google, then add the photo or choose Full Access |
| Photo shows a spinner or blurry preview | It is in iCloud with Optimize iPhone Storage on, and the full version is not downloaded | Open it in Photos and wait for the full image to load, then try again |
| Downloaded image not in Photos | It was saved to the Files app or Downloads, not the library | In the picker, switch to Browse or Files, or save it to Photos first |
| Android picker shows only some albums | The app uses the system photo picker or limited permission | Tap Browse or the menu in the picker to reach the folder; check app permissions in Settings |
| Image from WhatsApp or Telegram missing | The chat app has not saved it to the gallery | Open the image in the chat and use its Save option |
| File picked but upload fails at once | Format or size not accepted | Export JPEG under the service's limit; see the troubleshooting guide |
You do not need to give a website full access to your library. Safari and Chrome use the system picker, which hands over only the photo you select.
Get a better result from a phone screenshot
Most people searching from a phone are working from a screenshot of a profile, a chat or a listing. A few habits help a lot:
- Crop out the interface. Status bar, buttons, captions and chat bubbles can pull results toward app screenshots. Use the crop tool in Photos before searching.
- Search the photo, not the screen. If you can save the actual image (long-press, Save), that copy is sharper than a screenshot.
- Try one tight crop and one wide crop. The face or object alone, then the full picture with its background. Background details often lead to the original post.
- Do not use beauty filters or AI "enhance". They change the details the engine compares.
The screenshot and crop guide goes deeper on mirrored, compressed and text-covered images.
Read the results properly
A row of thumbnails is not an answer. For each promising result:
- Open the page and check the image is actually there.
- Read the caption, the account name and the date.
- Note the page URL, not just the image URL.
- Ask what the page supports. A photo on a stock site proves reuse, not who is pictured.
If you are checking a dating match or a seller and the photo turns up under another name, that is a strong warning sign but not proof of a scam on its own. The guide to spotting fake dating profiles explains how to weigh it.
When Lens finds nothing: face search
Google Lens deliberately does not identify people from their faces. If your question is "is this person real" or "where else is my face being used", a general image search will mostly show lookalikes or nothing at all.
A face search engine compares the face itself, so it can find other photos of the same person even when the picture is different. Facehunch runs that kind of search for $4.99 per search, with no subscription. Every result shows its source link and a similarity score, so you can check it yourself. Uploaded photos go to our search provider for the search, and removal is requested afterwards.
Use it to check someone you are already talking to, to protect yourself, or to find your own photos. Do not use any face search to identify strangers or locate someone who does not want contact. For a broader comparison of what works where, see Google face search and its limits.
Written by Facehunch with AI assistance and checked against the cited sources. Our editorial policy.