Blur faces in photos and videos, on your iPhone

Five ways to hide a face

A blur reads as documentary. Pixels read as broadcast TV. A solid cover hides the whole face. An emoji is playful. An Eye Bar covers only the eyes. Deface lets you switch among these styles after detection, without re-processing.

Gaussian blur softens the face while keeping the shape of the head — best for street photography and travel shots where the person is incidental.

Pixelate breaks the face into blocks. It is the most recognisable 'this was deliberately hidden' signal, which matters when you want viewers to know a choice was made.

Solid colour covers the region completely. The safest option, and the only one that removes all facial information from the pixels.

Emoji sticker places an emoji over the face at the right scale and angle. Choose from the built-in set or add your own.

Eye Bar places a narrow solid bar across the detected eyes and follows the face's angle. It leaves the rest of the face visible, so use a full-face cover when identity protection matters more than the look.

Edit several photos in one pass

Select up to five photos together. Deface detects faces in each one, then shows the set in a filmstrip so you can check each photo, change its regions and export the batch together.

Pinch to zoom into a photo while editing. It helps you check small faces and the edges of a censor before you save the result. A finished batch counts as one photo export against the daily allowance.

Faces are not the only thing worth hiding

Detection handles people. Manual regions handle everything else: a licence plate in the driveway, a street sign that gives away the neighbourhood, a tattoo, a name badge, an address on an envelope, a phone screen with a notification on it.

Draw a box, drag it where you want it and size it with precision controls. Give it a blur, pixel, solid, emoji or Eye Bar treatment. Manual regions stay at the chosen position across a video; check them if the subject moves.