How to Search Text Inside Your Photos on iPhone (Screenshots & Receipts)
Quick answer: To find a photo by the words inside it, use an app with on-device text recognition (OCR) that reads and indexes your screenshots, receipts, and notes. FaceIdent lets you type a word you remember — a store name, a code, a title — and pulls up the matching photo. Everything is processed on your iPhone; nothing is uploaded.
Half of a modern photo library is screenshots, receipts, tickets, and whiteboards. The fastest way to find one is to search the words it contains.
How text search in photos works
Text recognition (OCR) reads the words printed inside an image — a sign, a screenshot, a receipt — and turns them into searchable text. Once your library is indexed, typing a word finds every photo that contains it, even if the file has no caption or filename.
FaceIdent runs this recognition on-device, so your screenshots and receipts are never uploaded.
Step-by-step: search text in your photos
- Install a photo text-search app. Download FaceIdent from the App Store and allow access to your photos.
- Let it read on-device. The app recognizes text in your screenshots, receipts, and notes and indexes it on your iPhone.
- Search a word or phrase. Type something you remember seeing — a brand, an address, a confirmation code.
- Open the result. Tap the matching photo, then copy or share the text.
What to look for in a photo text-search app
| Feature | Why it matters | | --- | --- | | On-device OCR | Your screenshots and receipts are never uploaded | | Fast full-library search | Find one word across thousands of photos | | Works offline | Search keeps working without a connection | | Combines with people & objects | Narrow a result by who or what is in the photo | | Free to try | Test it on your own screenshots first |
FaceIdent covers all of these, alongside on-device face and pet grouping and natural-language photo search.
Common questions
Can I search for text inside my photos? Yes. FaceIdent reads text with on-device OCR and lets you search screenshots and receipts by their contents.
Does it work offline? Yes. Recognition and search run on your iPhone.
Is my photo text uploaded? No. OCR happens entirely on-device.
Ready to try it? Download FaceIdent on the App Store and find any screenshot or receipt by the words inside it — privately, on your device.