How to reverse image search on iPhone
Short answer: open the Google app, tap the Google Lens icon in the search bar, tap the photo picker and choose your picture. Google shows matching and similar images and the pages that use them. To search a picture on a website, touch and hold it in the Google app or Chrome and choose the Google Lens option.
Method 1: Search a photo from your library with the Google app
- Open the Google app. Google's help page asks for the latest version of the Google app (or the Chrome app).
- Tap the Google Lens icon in the search bar.
- Tap the photo picker icon and choose the photo or screenshot. You can also point the camera at something and tap the search button.
- Adjust the selection box. Drag its corners around the part you care about. A smaller area gives more specific results.
- Scroll down for results. To narrow them, tap Add to your search and type a few words. Google notes this option is only in the Google app.
Method 2: Search an image on a website (Google app or Chrome)
- Open the page with the image in the Google app or the Chrome app.
- Touch and hold the image.
- Choose the Google option. In the Google app, choose Search image with Google Lens. In Chrome, choose Search image with Google. For Chrome, Google must be your default search engine.
- Scroll down to see related results, and tap Add to your search to refine them.
Method 3: Use Safari without installing anything
- Open Safari and go to google.com.
- Tap the Google Lens icon in the search bar. Google's help page lists Safari alongside the Google and Chrome apps for this step.
- Upload the photo with the photo picker, adjust the selection and scroll for results.
If you are already looking at Google image results, select an image and tap the Google Lens icon at the bottom left to search with it.
Other reverse image search options on iPhone
- Bing Visual Search: on a phone you can take a photo or choose a saved image. Microsoft says it can show pages that use the image and related images.
- TinEye: the tineye.com website works in phone browsers. Upload or paste the image, then sort results by oldest to see the earliest copies TinEye has found.
- Apple Visual Look Up: in Photos, a starred Info button means Visual Look Up is available. Tap it, then Look Up, to identify things like landmarks, plants, pets, art and books. It identifies what is in the picture; it does not search the web for copies of the image. Apple says it is not available in every region or language.
Tips for finding the original source
- Search the whole image first, then a crop of a distinctive sign, logo or face. A crop can find a match that the full frame misses.
- Try two search engines. Google, Bing and TinEye index different pages.
- Open the matching pages and compare dates and captions. A match tells you where the image appeared, not who took it or when.
- For a video, save a few frames first with the video frame extractor, then search each frame. See reverse video search.
Checking whether a viral image is real? Read how to find the original source of a viral photo or run it through the AI image detector.
Sources
Steps and menu names on this page come from these official help pages, checked October 2026. Apps change their layouts over time; if a button looks different on your device, the linked page has the current wording.
- Search with an image on Google (iPhone & iPad) (Google Search Help, checked October 2026)
- Identify objects in your photos and videos on iPhone (Apple Support, checked October 2026)
- Using Bing Visual Search (Microsoft Support, checked October 2026)
- How do I search on TinEye? (TinEye Help, checked October 2026)