To reverse image search on a phone, open the Google app and tap the Lens icon (the camera) in the search bar, then pick a photo from your library. For an image on a web page, touch and hold it in Chrome or the Google app and choose to search it with Google. On many Android phones, Circle to Search works on anything on screen. For exact copies of your own photo, also try TinEye or Bing in your phone's browser.
How to reverse image search on iPhone
With the Google app (the quickest way):
- Install the free Google app from the App Store and open it.
- Tap the Lens icon, the colorful camera on the right of the search bar.
- Pick the photo from your library at the bottom of the screen.
- Scroll the results. Pages that use the same picture appear as matches, and you can drag the corners of the box to search just part of the photo.
For an image on a web page, open the page in Chrome or the Google app, touch and hold the image, and choose to search it with Google. Lens opens with the matches.
In Safari there's no long-press option. Save the image, open images.google.com, tap the AA button in the address bar, choose Request Desktop Website, then tap the camera icon in the search box and upload the photo.
How to reverse image search on Android
With the Google app or Google Photos: tap the Lens icon in the Google app's search bar and choose a photo, or open the photo in Google Photos and tap Lens at the bottom.
In Chrome: touch and hold any image on a web page and choose Search image with Google Lens.
Circle to Search, on many recent Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones and some others, works on anything on your screen, including apps. Touch and hold the home button or the navigation bar, then circle the image.
Find more copies with Bing and TinEye
Google isn't the only option, and when you're looking for copies of your own photo it's worth trying all three:
- Bing: on bing.com/images, tap the camera icon in the search box and upload your photo. Bing indexes different pages from Google, so it sometimes finds copies Google missed.
- TinEye: on tineye.com, tap the upload button and pick your photo. TinEye looks for near-identical copies rather than similar pictures, and can sort results by the oldest it found, which helps when you want to know who posted first.
Both work in your phone's browser, so there's nothing to install.
Found a copy of your photo?
Save every page you find before you do anything else, with a screenshot that shows the address and date. Then put your original and the copy into compare two photos. It shows how closely they match, what was cropped or changed, and what in your original file shows the photo is yours. Our guide on what to do when someone steals your photo covers getting it taken down.
If you're searching to find out where a photo was taken rather than who else has it, the location may be stored in the file itself. Our guide on how to find where a photo was taken explains how to check.