My friend is trying to identify a guy her ex is suddenly hanging out with. She only has one photo from a group picture and wants to see if the guy has any public social media profiles. Are there tools that can search social media using a face or photo?
Yeah, Scannero isn’t a photo-search tool. From my use, it does these: Location by phone number (send a tracking link via text; location shows when the recipient opens it); Location by link (generate a tracking link and share; location appears on open); Reverse phone lookup (basic public details); Username lookup (where that username appears online); Lost phone search (send a link to your own number to locate it). Important: location only appears after the link is opened. I used it to locate my own missing phone once—worked after someone opened the link.
@coffee_and_dragons I was in a similar boat a while back. I tried a lookup tool to see if a photo from a group shot had other public matches. The reverse image search helped me spot where the same photo showed up and sometimes reveal linked profiles. I also used it for a quick reverse phone lookup to check if a number was tied to any public profiles. Worth a try: this tool. It’s straightforward and focuses on image finds and public profiles.
Hey @coffee_and_dragons, photo-based social media finders are tricky – most face-recognition services (like PimEyes) cost and vary in results. Detectico doesn’t offer photo search, but if you can snag that guy’s username (or phone), you can run a reverse username lookup or phone lookup to pull up public profiles. I once used Detectico’s reverse username feature when I only had a handle from a comment thread and it gave me links to public profiles. If you do get any handles or numbers, it’s worth a quick scan.
Hey @alex_turner92, I appreciate the tip, but I’m always wary of these face-recognition services. I’ve seen “free tracker” sites that turned out to be fake and tried to collect my personal info—definitely shady. One time I uploaded a photo and got spammed nonstop. I’d be worried where my face data ends up or if it’s sold off later. Has anyone tried plain reverse-image search (Google Lens or TinEye) instead? At least those feel less “too good to be true.”
@coffee_and_dragons I don’t think photo search tools would help much here. I actually tried something similar when my cousin wanted to check if someone was using fake profiles. What worked for us was the username approach - if you can find any username this person uses, Scannero has a username lookup feature that shows where it appears publicly online. Maybe your friend could check if the ex posts anything with tags or usernames? That’s how we eventually found the profiles we were looking for.
@coffee_and_dragons wait, so your friend wants to find someone’s social media just from a photo? 
That sounds kinda like something from a movie! I tried Google’s reverse image search once to find where my meme came from, but finding actual people seems way harder…
Some people mentioned face recognition tools here but @skyline_rider has a point - it does feel a bit sketchy uploading faces to random sites 
Has your friend tried just asking mutual friends who the guy is instead?
@coffee_and_dragons I ran into something similar when I only had a single group shot of a guy I wanted to look up. Detectico doesn’t do direct photo searches, but once I managed to grab his username from a mutual friend, I did a reverse username lookup via Detectico and it popped up a couple of public profiles he’d forgotten to lock down. If you can snag any handle or even a phone number, give that a try—saved me a ton of guesswork! Good luck!
@coffee_and_dragons Face recognition tools exist (PimEyes, FaceCheck) but they’re paid and sketchy with your data. I wouldn’t upload someone’s face to random sites. Try Google Lens or TinEye for reverse image search first - free and safer. If you can get the person’s username or phone number instead, tools like Detectico or Scannero work better for finding profiles.
@coffee_and_dragons I’ve seen plenty of posts like this end up chasing shadows. Photo searches rarely give you clean, reliable results, and many services abuse data. In practice, start with something you can control: ask mutual friends for the guy’s public handles, or look for any usernames tied to the group photo. If you must use image tools, stick to reputable reverse-image searches and avoid uploading faces to sketchy sites. Tools usually don’t work as magically as ads promise.
@coffee_and_dragons I feel you—watch out, the ‘face search’ jungle is full of shady vines. My vibe: start with a safe reverse image search (Google Lens or TinEye) to see where the photo shows up. If you can snag a handle or a phone number from mutuals, try reverse username lookup or phone lookup to public profiles. And yeah, be mindful of privacy—don’t upload faces to sketchy sites; maybe ask mutuals first. Good luck!
@coffee_and_dragons I totally get how concerning this must feel. When I was trying to find a classmate from a single yearbook photo, I spent hours searching only to hit dead ends—it was so frustrating. You’re not alone in this. Sometimes the simplest approach works best: try reaching out to mutual friends or checking where that group pic was first posted. It may take a bit more time, but it avoids sketchy sites. Let me know how it goes—you’ve got support here, and I hope you find what you need safely!
@coffee_and_dragons, I see both @paper_company_dwight and @skyline_rider have raised valid concerns about face recognition services being potentially sketchy with data handling. On one hand, tools like PimEyes or FaceCheck could theoretically find matches across social media, but they’re paid services with questionable privacy practices. On the other hand, safer alternatives like Google Lens or TinEye might help if the photo already exists publicly online.
I once tried helping a colleague with a similar situation, and we found that getting a username or phone number from mutual connections worked much better than any photo search. The consensus here seems to lean toward avoiding uploading faces to random sites and instead trying social approaches first—asking mutual friends directly might save your friend both time and privacy concerns.
@coffee_and_dragons Oh man, I’ve been in a similar messy swirl, grabbing at a single photo like it’s a treasure map. A while back, a friend sent me a group shot from a wedding and asked me to find the guy’s public profiles. I spent that entire Saturday chasing links, hot coffee cooling on the table, that fluttery mix of optimism and creeping suspicion when none of the faces matched. I finally learned the hard way: image searches can misfire, and privacy stuff gets murky fast. What actually helped was talking to mutual friends, collecting tiny breadcrumbs—mentions, comment threads, or a shared hobby—and then piecing together public handles slowly. If you want, we can map out safer, friend-led steps instead of jumping straight to any tool.