A lot of pictures reach us through chats: forwarded news photos, memes, profile pictures, product images. Checking where one came from is easy once you know how to get it out of the chat app.
Quick answer: save the photo (or take a screenshot), crop it to just the picture, then upload it to our free Reverse Image Search and tap a search engine.
Step 1: Get the photo out of the chat
- iPhone: open the photo, tap the share button and choose Save.
- Android: open the photo, tap the ⋮ menu and choose Save. WhatsApp may also save photos to your gallery automatically.
Telegram, Messenger and other apps
Open the photo and look for a download or save option, usually behind a share icon or ⋮ menu.
When you can’t save it
Take a screenshot instead. On most phones that’s pressing the power and volume-up (or volume-down) buttons together.
Step 2: Crop it
This matters more than most people realise. A screenshot includes the chat, the app’s buttons, the time and your battery icon, and all of that confuses search engines.
- Open the screenshot in your phone’s Photos or Gallery app and tap Edit.
- Crop to just the picture.
- If the picture has a busy background, crop further to the most distinctive part.
Step 3: Search it
- Open our Reverse Image Search tool in your browser.
- Tap Upload image and pick your cropped photo.
- Tap Google Lens. If it finds nothing useful, try TinEye, Bing and Yandex.
On a computer
- Save an image: right-click it and choose Save image as.
- WhatsApp Web or Desktop: open the photo and click the download icon.
- Take a screenshot: on Windows press Windows + Shift + S; on a Mac press Cmd + Shift + 4 and drag over the picture. Both let you select just the area you want, so there’s no need to crop afterwards.
- Paste a link: if the image is on a website, right-click it, choose Copy image address, and use Paste image URL in our tool.
Search just part of the picture
If a photo contains several things, such as a person in front of a building with a sign behind them, search each part separately. Crop to the building and search, then crop to the sign and search. Smaller, focused crops often find matches the full picture doesn’t.
Why forwarded photos are harder to match
Chat apps compress photos to save data, and every forward can reduce quality a little more. Text, stickers and filters added on top also change the picture. If a search finds nothing, try:
- Asking the sender for the original photo or a link to where they found it.
- Cropping out any text or stickers.
- Searching just one part of the image, such as a face, a building or a logo.
- Trying all four engines. See which engine is best for what.
Checking a forwarded news photo?
Many viral photos are real pictures from a different time or place. Our guide on checking whether a viral photo is old or fake shows how to find where it first appeared before you share it.
Frequently asked questions
Will the sender know I searched their photo?
No. Searching a photo doesn’t notify anyone.
Can I search a photo from a video?
Yes. Pause the video on a clear frame, take a screenshot, crop it and search it like any other photo.
Does it work for memes?
Yes. Reverse image search is a good way to find where a meme started. Crop out the added text for better results.
Got a photo in a chat? Find where it came from with our free Reverse Image Search.