WhatsApp is working on a new feature now available in its Android beta channel: reverse image search. What this essentially does is allow you to quickly search online for an image that has been sent to you so that you can verify its authenticity if you need to.
It’s a very simple function. Once you tap on an image you received, you will see a new item in the three-dot menu at the top right: Search the Web. This will upload the image to Google and the search engine will then present you with identical and similar images, giving you a better idea of how reliable what you have submitted.
Of course, you could always do this manually, but it’s much easier to have this feature built directly into WhatsApp itself rather than sharing it with the Google app to achieve the same goal.
Either way, searching for an image will give you more context and tell you if it was part of a misinformation effort.
The feature is currently only available to beta testers, and it may take a few weeks if not months before it’s available to everyone, but it certainly seems to be coming.