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How to Use Your Phone's Camera to Search

by Suzanne Kantra on June 18, 2024

Searching with images is the wave of the future. Whether you're trying to identify something you'd like to buy or looking for information on what you see in the world around you, visual search apps can help. Armed with your phone and one of these apps, all you have to do is snap a photo and the app will try to identify the object or landmark and find information on it.

Ready to get started? Here are our favorite visual search apps.

Best App for Searching for Anything: Google Lens and Circle to Search

With Google Lens, all you have to do is point and shoot at any object, and Google Lens does a pretty good job of telling you what it is. I took a picture of a flowering plant I'm growing on my terrace and found it's an Alyssum. The camera also recognized a church I visited in Oaxaca, Mexico and did a nice job of translating Spanish into English in real time for everything from signs to menus. You can also snap pictures of clothing and other objects and find similar items for purchase. And you can add text to your image search for more precise results.

Google app home page with the camera icon circled.

In addition to photos from your camera, you can easily use Lens to analyze screenshots you've taken.

Read more: How to Capture Screenshots on Your Phone and Computer

Google Lens is part the Google app and Google Photos app for iPhone users. And it's available through the Google search bar, Camera app, and Google Photos app for Android. It's intuitive to use, but if you get stuck, read the step-by-step instructions in my story on How to Reverse Image Search Using Google.

Google's Circle to Search feature for Android phones is very similar to Google Lens. Instead of capturing a shot with your camera or using a screenshot, you can circle anything you're currently looking at on your screen – in any app – and Google will search for it.

Screenshot of Circle to Search feature. You see a grayed out web page with a white circle around a product and the Navigation Handle outlined in red. brackets and search results below it.

To use Circle to Search, you long-press on the navigation handle (the bar at the bottom of the screen outline in red above). If your phone supports Circle to Search, you'll see a message "Circle or tap anywhere to search" pop up. Currently, it's a feature on Pixel 6 or later and Samsung Galaxy S21 and Flip 4 and later phones.

Best App for Searching for Hard-to-Find Items: Ebay

See the perfect pair of shoes, an old-fashioned truck or vase? You can use an image to find it, or something similar, the Ebay app. Image search is an option in the standard search box, allowing you to snap a photo or select a photo from your camera roll to search.

Ebay app screenshot shows the home page of the eBay app with the camera icon outlined in red.

eBay will sift through over a billion items to find similar products – though just how similar will depend on the photo and the item. A search for a pair of shoes, for example, will give you shoes with a similar style, but may not necessarily be the same shoes.

Best app for all kinds of shopping: Amazon Shopping

If shopping is what you're interested in, Amazon Mobile makes it easy for you to find anything they stock using your smartphone camera. Just fire up your Amazon Shopping app and click on the visual search icon (the square with the circle in it) in the search bar.

Screenshot of the Amazon app shows the home screen for the Amazon app with the visual search icon pointed out.

In "Search," you can frame an item with your camera or scan the barcode. You can also load an image you've already taken and the app will scan for products and show you similar items.

Sometimes images will have multiple products that Amazon recognizes. For instance, the app may recognize the top and the skirt on a model or the lamp and throw pillows in an interior design photo. In that case, you'll see a dot over each item matched to products on Amazon. Tap a dot to see the results for that item.

Amazon app image upload showing multiple items recognized by the app.

This post was updated on 6/18/2024 with new screenshots and Circle to Search information.

[Image credits: Screenshots via Techlicious of Google, Ebay, and Amazon, phone mockup via Canva]

For the past 20+ years, Techlicious founder Suzanne Kantra has been exploring and writing about the world’s most exciting and important science and technology issues. Prior to Techlicious, Suzanne was the Technology Editor for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and the Senior Technology Editor for Popular Science. Suzanne has been featured on CNN, CBS, and NBC.


Topics

Time Savers, Phones and Mobile, Mobile Apps, Android Apps, iPhone/iPad Apps, Tips & How-Tos, Shopping


Discussion loading

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From David M. Dunn on April 04, 2016 :: 6:35 pm


Can I use any of these on my Fire tablet?

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From Suzanne Kantra on April 04, 2016 :: 8:25 pm


The SnipSnap app is available for Fire tablets: http://amzn.to/1qlREEA

and Pinterest for relatively new Fire tablets:
http://amzn.to/1TxI4Kf

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From David M. Dunn on April 10, 2016 :: 9:45 pm


So good to know and so nice of you to answer my question.  I hope some of the other apps will make the required changes for my Fire.
I do appreciate your responding to my question so a BIG thanks.

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From David on October 08, 2018 :: 9:45 am


Is there an app on my Google pixel 2 phone where I can take a picture of something and it search it and tell me what it is?

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From Josh Kirschner on October 09, 2018 :: 12:55 pm


If you pull up a photo in Google Photos, you’ll see an icon on the bottom, second from the right, that looks like a square with a magnifying glass. Click on this and Google Lens will analyze your photo and provide more details, if it can figure out what it is. I’ve found it to be somewhat hit or miss, but it does an okay job and it’s very easy to use since it’s integrated with the photo app.

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From Michrlle on August 05, 2016 :: 5:44 pm


I took a picture of my daughters north face fleece and want to find it on the Internet; she outgrew it. The one now is a 3t and she wants the same one, thanks.

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From Banu on February 09, 2017 :: 12:57 am


I am expecting more interesting topics from you. And this was nice content and definitely it will be useful for many people.

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From Nana on July 29, 2017 :: 9:20 pm


I have been using my knowledge to find this item and cannot locate it.  Can you help or advise where I could go?  I can take a picture of item for you also.

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From Lurrics angel on March 03, 2019 :: 12:06 pm


Am here to search through camera

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From janis comstock on October 16, 2019 :: 9:51 pm


I lost my first Kindle Fire that came with an app already installed where you pointed the camera at something and it would tell you what it was.
What was it called?

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From Dishahin on November 27, 2019 :: 11:42 pm


If i have a list of names on paper and want to search for a particular name.. how do I use the mobile for this purpose?

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From Josh Kirschner on December 03, 2019 :: 11:18 am


Google Lens has text recognition capability, but if you just want to search for a specific name, it’s probably easier just to type that name into Google Assistant and do a standard Google search.

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From Tanya Tapley on December 23, 2019 :: 2:02 pm


I have a painting stolen that meant allot to me. Is there an app you could recommend that I could use to see if anyone ever put it up for sale online?

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From aziyaann davis on October 28, 2020 :: 6:46 pm


Can you tell me all the stuff that’s red and black

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From Kelly Reeves on February 01, 2021 :: 1:44 am


Hi Josh,

I have a few things I want to sale before I move. A few things like new medical equipment I no longer need like a wheelchair, electric scooter and a cane. I also have boxes of old crystal China and other odds and ends. My question is, is there a free app I can download where I can take a picture of my items and it will automatically price them for me to today’s pricing? Then I can advertise them on their website? I thought I came across something like that a few years ago but I can’t find it now.

Thank you so much.

Kelly

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From Creative on June 03, 2021 :: 8:54 am


I want to sale my old doll house but I don’t know how much I should sale it for

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From Rita on July 07, 2021 :: 11:08 am


Vase by renata gaudio

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From Rowland Whittet on February 06, 2022 :: 11:41 am


Two birds, nesting 50’ high, 100 ft level from Sennebec road, opposite bank on union street,and second floor of houses

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From Jennifer on June 20, 2022 :: 4:40 pm


Some articles say it’s free and some say there is a free trial period ?

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From Josh Kirschner on June 20, 2022 :: 5:31 pm


All of the apps in our story are free to use.

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From Daniel on September 13, 2022 :: 7:23 pm


How do I verify anything older or secondhand of their true value?

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From Kent Birkheimer on September 21, 2022 :: 10:09 am


To identify an item’s value you can filter in eBay by “Sold” listings to see what an item actually sold for. Don’t go by prices on unsold items as that may not represent what buyers are actually willing to pay. Note that if the item is a book, video, or CD with a barcode you can scan that in eBay also (there’s a toggle in the camera app to turn bar code scanning on or off).

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From Daniel on September 13, 2022 :: 7:38 pm


Can I take a shot on any item to identify its present value.

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From lara pio on February 23, 2023 :: 4:35 pm


haw do i yous this?

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From DBohn on March 22, 2023 :: 11:58 am


OK I am trying to find a simple app. What I want to do, while shopping use the camera on my phone (dynamically, not of a pic) to scan the ingredients list on a package for key words, like soy. This could be a great help to those over 50 with less than great eyesite. Words could either be entered on demand and/or from a list controlled by the app, maybe a TXT file.

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