Prepare the image before you search
Find the photograph in Photos or Files and keep an untouched copy. If you only have a screenshot, crop away chat messages, notifications and other people’s details. Preserve enough of the subject to make the search useful. For a location or object, removing the entire background may discard the best clue.
Check that you have permission to upload the image. Photos can contain details beyond the subject, including location information. Review our metadata guide if you are sharing a file from your camera library.
Choose a route on your iPhone
Google’s iPhone instructions describe image searching through supported Google apps and browsers. Use the Lens control, select an existing picture and refine the selected region when appropriate. Interface labels can differ between app versions.
For Facehunch, open the workspace in Safari or another current browser, choose a photo and select a supported file. Facehunch accepts JPG, PNG and WebP up to 10 MB. A HEIC image is not an accepted upload merely because your phone can display it; export a JPEG copy if the chooser does not convert it.
Read the result on the source page
- Open a candidate result and check that the image is actually present.
- Read the caption and page context instead of relying on a preview.
- Keep the page URL separately from the direct image URL.
- Note whether the page shows a publication date, an update date or no date at all.
For example, a picture in a travel article may be a stock illustration rather than a photograph of the writer. The page title and portrait should not be combined into an identity claim unless the page makes that connection itself.
If your upload or search fails
A cloud-only file may need downloading first. An unsupported format should be converted, not just renamed. A low-resolution messenger preview may work poorly even when the upload succeeds. Try the original and a careful crop once each, then follow the failure checklist.
Facehunch’s test mode is a connection test with potentially unrelated results. It does not become a full-index search because it is running on an iPhone.