How to do a reverse image search in under a minute
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Since I wrote about the five questions I ask before forwarding anything, the message I've received most is: "OK, but how do I actually check a photo?" Here is the short version, for your phone and for your laptop.
On your phone
- Save the image, or take a screenshot of it.
- Open the Google app or Google Photos and tap the Lens icon.
- Choose the image, then scroll through the results and look for the oldest pages that used it.
On a laptop
- Right-click the image and choose Search image with Google, or upload it to TinEye or Bing Visual Search.
- On TinEye, sort the results by Oldest. If the picture existed years before the event it supposedly shows, it's being reused.
For videos
- Pause on a clear frame with a face, a sign or a landmark, take a screenshot, and search that.
- Try two or three different frames: one often works when another doesn't.
What the results can, and can't, tell you
- An older match means the image isn't from the event in the claim.
- No match doesn't prove an image is real. It might be new, cropped or AI-generated.
- Read the pages you find: the original caption usually tells you where and when the photo was taken.
The short video below from Common Sense Education walks through the same steps on screen.
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