How Can Reverse Image Search Be Used?

Reverse image search can come in handy in a variety of scenarios. The first is finding the source of a beautiful image you’ve spotted somewhere. Perhaps you’d like to know more about the photographer/painter or determine the copyright status of an image before using it. Alternatively, you can search for similar images. At the same time, reverse image search can be a great discovery tool. You can use it to identify anything from products and cover art to actors and dog breeds. It could potentially even help you tell whether a person is using their real photos online. Its applications are endless, really. Stumbled upon an interesting font? Here are the best tools to easily help you identify fonts from an image.

1. Use a Dedicated Website

This method is best used when trying to find an image’s source. For the purposes of this article, we’ve downloaded an image from the stock site Unsplash and set out to see whether we could locate its source via reverse image search using these tools.

One of the websites that will help you on your mobile browser is Reverse Image Search. Unfortunately, you’ll need to log in with a Google account if you wish to use the service, but beyond, that there aren’t any other restrictions.

TinEye

If you don’t have a Google account and don’t want to create one just to use the tool mentioned above, the TinEye website allows you to perform a reverse image search with fewer clicks.

2. With Google Lens

Google Lens is a service that comes integrated in many of Google’s apps, and you can use it to quickly perform a reverse image search. The tool is best suited for finding similar images or detecting what or who appears in a photo. You can access Google Lens via its dedicated app or through a host of apps, including the Google app, Google Photos and Chrome. Since the Google app and Chrome are preinstalled on most Android devices, we are showing you how to perform a reverse image search using both.

Google App

Tip: learn how to quickly pin extensions to the Google Chrome toolbar.

Google Chrome

You can also make use of the Google Chrome web browser on your Android smartphone to perform a reverse image search. Note: Google now harnesses the power of Lens to perform reverse image searches via Google Images on PC.

3. Try a Third-Party App

If you like the idea of having a dedicated reverse image search app on your phone, install Photo Sherlock, one of the best options outside Google Lens. The app relies on Bing instead of Google to do its work. At the same time, we managed to use the app to identify a specifies of rare orchids.
Tip: explore a few more Android apps that are worthy alternatives to Google Lens.

4. Use Another Search Engine

If you don’t want to rely on Google for your search results, you can switch to another search engine. For instance, Yandex allows you to do a quick reverse image search. You can also access Bing from your browser if you don’t want to download apps that use it for a reverse image search. All images by Alexandra Arici.