How to Restore Reverse Image Search with Right-Click in Chrome

Jan 12, 2022

Google recently added Google Lens to its Chrome desktop Web browser. While it is a great tool, it replaced the “Search Google for image” option when right-clicking a photo. Here’s a guide on how to continue doing reverse image searches with a right-click if you have lost it.

The Power of Reverse Image Searches

Doing a reverse image search with Google Images is a powerful way to both locate the source of an image as well as find other instances of it on the Internet.

If you find an uncredited photograph online, you can search directly for the photo on Google to figure out who the creator was where it may have first been published.

And if you are a photographer or creative yourself, doing a reverse image search on your own work can help you find all the places the images appear across the Internet, possibly revealing unauthorized uses (i.e. copyright infringement) that you can take action on.

While one can always visit Google Images directly and upload an image to search for it, the ability to search for an image directly by right-clicking it was a helpful alternative option that was unfortunately replaced when Google Lens was integrated into Chrome at the end of 2021.

Solution #1: Reverse Image Search Through Google Lens

While Google Lens is not a reverse image search tool — it allows you to find out more about things seen within visual content — Google has not done away with the ability to reverse search through a right-click completely.

If you’re content leaving the Google Lens option intact in your right-click menu, you can still simply click through.

You will be taken to a result page on which Google Lens will share matches for what the image contains (instead of what the image exactly looks like).

If you scroll down to the bottom of the Google Lens results, however, you’ll find a secondary option of searching for the same image through the classic Google Images reverse image search.

“Didn’t find what you were looking for?” the option reads. “Retry with Google Images.”

Clicking the “Try it” button will bring you to the “old” Google Images results that match both image content and visual similarity.

Click one of the links under “Find other sizes of this image” to find all the instances of the photo Google has indexed from across the Web.

Solution #2: Remove Google Lens to Restore Reverse Image Search

If you would like to get rid of the Google Lens option completely and bring back the “Search Google for image” right-click option, that is easy to do as well. It’s simple a Chrome flag that you can toggle on and off.

First, enter chrome://flags/ into your Chrome search/address bar and hit Enter, then scroll down to the Search your screen with Google Lens entry. Alternatively, you can directly enter chrome://flags/#enable-lens-region-search into your search bar.

Choose “Disabled” from the dropdown menu.

Once you’ve made the change, Chrome will tell you that the “changes will take effect the next time you relaunch Chrome” and give you the option to relaunch. When Chrome has relaunched, you will find that the “Search Google for image” has been restored in your right-click menu.