Every action on the internet leaves a trace. By publishing photos on websites or social media, we make it easy for other people to find and recognise us. In today’s post you will find step-by-step instructions on how to easily find a person by their photo.
How do I find a person by their photo? Step-by-step guide
You can find a person by photo using Google Search, or more precisely, Google Lens in Google Images. Searching for a person by photo is possible from both the computer and the phone. Below you will find instructions for both types of devices.
How do I find a person by photo on a computer?
To find a person by photo on a computer, you need to do the following:
- open a web browser and go to the Google Images page,
- select the image search option highlighted on the screen below,
- upload the file from your computer,
- if the photo has previously been published on the internet, you should receive a result with a link to the page. It is also possible that Google will suggest similar photos featuring the person in question.
How do I find a person by their photo on my phone?
As I mentioned earlier, searching by image is also possible on mobile devices. What’s more, finding people by their photos from the phone is possible in two ways – from the browser and the app. I have included 2 separate instructions below.
Finding a person by photo via the browser on your phone:
- Open your web browser and go to the Google Images page,
- select the image search option, shown below,
- select a photo from your phone’s gallery,
- if the photo has previously been published online, you should get a result with a link to the page. It’s also possible that Google will suggest similar images that feature the person.
Finding a person by photo using a mobile app:
- Go to Google Play or the App Store, then download and install the Google Lens app,
- open the app and select the photo in question,
- Google will provide you with the most matching results. If the photo has previously been published online, it should appear to you with a link to the page. It is also possible that Google will find similar photos of this person.
How do I check the name of the person in the photo?
When you upload a photo to Google Images and get a result with a link to the page, it is likely that you will also be able to get information about the identity of the person. So, in order to find out the name of the person in the photo, you need to go to the website from the search results and then check if it is signed. If so, the matter is straightforward.
If you cannot find the name in the text on the page, it is also worth checking the alt attribute of the image. To do this, you need to:
- right-click on the photo,
- select Explore
- when the html code is displayed, look for the following in the highlighted section: alt=””
When will it not be possible to find a person by photo?
Some services and applications allow their users to block the possibility of finding photos published on them using external search engines. Facebook, for example, is one of them. In the privacy settings, you can specify that you do not wish external search engines to provide a link to your profile. More information on this can be found here.
More and more people are becoming concerned about their privacy and are using this option. So if someone was hoping to search for a person on Facebook or another social network by their photo, they may be disappointed, as this will not always be possible.
In summary, finding people by photo is possible with the image search function in Google Images, as well as with the Google Lens app. Before publishing any photos online, it is worth considering first whether you really want other people to be able to find you afterwards.
