3 Ways to Search by Image on iPhone with Google Search

Updated Dec 20,2018 | by Cody

You can use a picture as your search to find where has also shared this image and know more about this image. You can also perform a reverse image search to find related images. In this article, I will show you 3 ways to search by image on iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

As you know, it is easy to perform a Google reverse image search on desktop. Of course, you don’t have to transfer photos to PC in order to do a reverse image search. On iOS device, this feature is not commonly known.

Depending on the web browser you are using, the steps vary a little. With a little setup, you can also search by Image on iPhone from Camera Roll.

When you use Safari to open Google Image Search web page, you will not see the option to upload an image. Even if you switch to Chrome browser, you still cannot do a reserve image search like it on desktop.

Good news is you can request desktop site and from there you can upload an image from Photo Library or Files app. You can take a photo and search for it. Follow the steps below to get started.

Step 1. Open Safari and go to Google Image search page. Tap on the Share button and select Request Desktop Site from the share sheet.

Step 2. When the desktop site is fully loaded, tap on the Camera icon in the search box and select Upload an image. Of course, you can also search by URLs if needed.

Step 3. Now you can select photos from Library or Files app. Then you Google will bring you the reverse image search results.

If you have Google Drive or other cloud drive connected to Files app, then you can select image from your Google Drive. You can also select the Camera icon to take a photo and search for what it is about.

As you can see, it is hard tor read the words from the desktop site on your iPhone, especially for small screen iPhone devices. You may find it difficult to tap on the Camera icon. An easier way to search by image would be search from the Photos app.

Thanks to the iOS 12 new feature Siri Shortcuts, now you can search by image from iPhone Camera Roll. To do that, you need to download the Shortcuts app from AppStore, which is totally free, and get this Reverse Image Search shortcut. Sound interesting? Read on to see how it works.

Step 1. Go to Photos app and select any image that you want to search and tap on the Share button.

Step 2. From the share sheet, select Shortcuts. If you use it for the first time, you need to tap on More to enable Shortcuts option.

Step 3. Select the Reverse Image Search shortcut, and wait for the search result to come out.

By default, this shortcut will use Safari to bring you the reverse image search result, so you need to have Safari installed. It is quick in this and you don’t have to look for the tiny Camera icon.

You can also run this shortcut from the Shortcuts app. Then this shortcut will bring you the photo library for you to select an image to search for. As you may know, Shortcuts is the updated version of Workflow app, which acquired by Apple in 2017. If you are running an older version of iOS, you can download the Workflow app. If you are interested, you can also get more pre-made Siri Shortcuts to explore further.

Besides Google reserve image search, you can also use TinEye, which is mobile friendly. No matter what web browser you use on your iOS device, you can easily search by image with TinEye reserve image search.

Just go to the web page and tap on the upload button to upload the image. You will still have 3 options to upload photos. As you can see, it is well mobile optimized.

If you want to access this quickly, you can tap on the Share button to add it to Home Screen, so you can quickly search by image on iPhone using TinEye reverse image search. You can also use Bing reverse image search on your iPhone, which is also mobile optimized. I don’t think you need to download an app to do a reverse image search.

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