If you need to see where else a photo has been published online — to check on a copyright or publishing question, see where else it has been used, or try to trace its origins — then a reverse image search can be quite helpful.
You may already know how to do it on a computer, but it turns out that it's easy to do on your Android phone as well.
Here's how to do it.
How to reverse image search on Android
There are a couple of ways to do an image search using your Android device. But before you proceed, make sure you've updated Google Chrome to the latest version.
Using an image from image search results
The ability to do a reverse image search is built into Google Chrome, which makes it very easy to perform after an image search.
1. Open the Google Chrome app.
2. Go to http://images.google.com.
3. Perform a search to find the image you want.
4. Tap on the image.
5. Tap the Google Lens icon on the top right and Google will do a reverse image search.
6. The results of the reverse image search will appear below the original image in a pop-up. Swipe up on the pop-up to see the full results.
Using an image from a website
You can also do a reverse image search directly from a website, which is very convenient.
1. Open the Google Chrome app.
2. Navigate to the web page with the image you want to search with.
3. Tap and hold the image until a pop-up menu appears.
4. Tap Search Google for this image.
5. After a moment, you'll see the search results for this image below the image you searched with. Swipe up in the area with the results to see them fully.
Using an image from your device
If the image you want to search with is already stored on your phone, rather than located on a web page, you can also use it for a reverse image search.
1. Open the Google Chrome app.
2. In the search bar, tap the Google Lens icon on the right. You might need to give Chrome access to your gallery and camera.
3. If the image is physical, tap Search with your camera in the top section and take a photo of it. Otherwise, scroll through your gallery and tap on the image you want to search with.
4. After a moment, you'll see the search results for this image below the image you searched with. Swipe up on the area with the results to see them fully.
