So-called “catfishing” scams remain alive and well online, especially on dating sites where folks are looking for romance. This type of deceptive activity, which often involves scammers posting fake images online, is easier to thwart thanks to browser-based reverse image lookup tools such as the most popular one on the planet, Google Images.
Reverse image tools aren’t just used to uncover deceptive practices online. Increasingly, this type of tool is also being used for shopping purposes as you’ll see below.
Doing a reverse image lookup on your iPhone or iPad isn’t the same as doing it on your computer. Here are the most popular ways to do this.
This type of lookup is typically used to find out the source of an image, or find higher resolution versions. Most searches also allow you to discover where on the web the image appears. Although each image lookup solution is different, most perform their tasks by analyzing the submitted photo and constructing a mathematical model of it using advanced algorithms. It then compares that information with other images online.
Doing Lookups on Your iOS Device With a Web Browser
There are two main ways to do reverse lookups through a mobile device. These ways include through a web browser and an app.
Google Chrome
The easiest way to do a reverse lookup on your iOS device is through Google Chrome. To do so:
Download and install the Google Chrome app from the App Store.
Tap on the Google Chrome app from your Home screen.
Tap on the … icon at the lower right of the screen in the Chrome app.
In the pop-up, scroll down and tap Request Desktop Site.
On your iOS device, you can choose a file from your Photo Library or by browsing your iCloud folder. You can also snap a photo.
After you import your image, Google will show you whether it found the photo elsewhere on the web. It will also show you a list of visually similar images.
Mobile Safari
You can perform a similar task on the mobile version of Safari by doing the following:
Tap on the Safari app on your Home screen.
For iOS 13+, tap the aA icon in the left corner of the URL address bar and choose Request Desktop Site. If using iPadOS 13+, you don’t need this step as iPadOS defaults to Desktop Mode automatically
For earlier iOS versions, tap on the Share Button (the icon that looks like a square with an upward arrow) at the bottom of the Safari app screen. Look to your Share Sheet’s second row, scroll from right to left until you see the Request Desktop Site icon and tap on it.
On your iOS device, you can choose a file from your Photo Library or by browsing your iCloud folder. You can also snap a photo.
After you import your image, Google will show you whether it found the photo elsewhere on the web. It will also show you a list of visually similar images.
Other Web-Based Solutions
Perhaps you’d like to use a mobile web browser to do a reverse image search, but don’t want to use Google Images. If that’s the case, two mobile-friendly web-based services stand out: TinEye and Yandex.
With TinEye, you can upload or enter an image URL. From there, the service will try to make a match. Once completed, you can sort the search results by Best Match, Most Changed, Biggest Images, Newest, and Oldest. You can also filter the results by domain.
If you can’t find an image match using other means, it might be worth your time to try this site. Yandex is a Russian-based service that you might want to use as a last resort.
Through an App
If you want to use an app to do a reverse lookup, we’ve got you covered. Here are four apps that will help you learn more about an image.
Reversee
This image search app uses Google’s engine to get the job done. If you’d rather use another browser, you can pay extra by making a one-time in-app purchase. Choices then include Google, Bing, and Yandex.
Reversee is much more than an image search app. It also includes valuable editing tools such as the ability to brighten, crop, and resize images on the fly.
If you don’t want to jump through the steps above to use Google Images through a mobile web browser, Reversee is perhaps the best alternative. You can download the Reversee app on the App Store.
CamFind
CamFind wasn’t primarily designed to uncover catfishing schemes. Instead, it’s a shopping discovery tool. To use the app, snap a photo in the app. From there, the app matches the image against ones available on the internet and identifies the object.
For example, you might see a lamp in someone’s house that you’d like to buy. Snap a photo of it, and CamFind will attempt to find the item online.
Because you can also import an image from your iOS device’s camera roll, it serves the due role of helping you match pictures of people online. Although again, it’s not the primary purpose.
CamFind is free to download from the App Store and worth checking out.
Veracity
Here’s a freemium app that allows you to choose images from your Camera Roll, Photo Library, and Dropbox and see if they match to pictures on the web. The Veracity app isn’t the slickest in the App Store (an update would be nice), but some people love it, so that’s why we’ve included it here.
Google Lens
Not long ago, Google Lens was only available on Google’s lineup of Pixel smartphones. That is no longer the case. Apple iPhone and iPad users can use the tool in the Google app, which is available on the App Store. For more information, check out our Google Lens How To.
No matter the reason, reverse image lookup tools provide a great resource online. If you have an image you’d like to learn more about, turn to these tools to get the job done. If one tool doesn’t uncover anything, try another one and so forth.
What have you discovered using reverse image lookup tools? Let us know below.
The desktop version is not available in safari and greyed out in chrome on my iPad.
Hi DD,
If using iOS 13+, tap the AA icon in the left corner of the URL address bar and then choose Request Desktop Website.