How to blur a face in InShot
InShot doesn't find faces for you. You add a Mosaic or Blur sticker, place it over one face, track it, then check the result — and repeat for every other person in the shot.
The Mosaic sticker method
InShot's tools move between versions, so treat the names below as a guide. The shape of the job stays the same: one cover per face, placed by you.
- Import your video and open the sticker tools. The face covers live with the stickers, usually under a Detail or Mosaic section rather than in Filters.
- Pick Mosaic or Blur and drop it on the timeline. Choose a shape and intensity. It appears in the middle of the frame, not on the face.
- Drag and size it over the face. Pinch it to cover the whole head with some margin — a cover sized for a frontal face will miss an ear when the person turns.
- Stretch it to the length of the shot. The sticker only covers the stretch of timeline you give it.
- Track it, if the person moves. Use InShot's tracking option on the sticker, then play the clip back and watch for frames where the cover slides off the face — fast turns, someone walking past, or the face leaving frame and coming back. Fix those by hand.
- Repeat for every other face. Each person needs their own sticker, sizing, tracking and check. Nothing is shared between them.
- Export. InShot's free tier adds a small watermark; removing it needs the paid version.
Where this gets slow
The work scales with the number of people and how much they move. One person sitting still is a quick job. A group walking through a shot is a sticker, a tracking pass and a review for each face, and every review means watching the whole clip.
Tracking helps, but it follows the patch of video you placed the sticker on, not a face it understands. When a head turns, a hand crosses the face or the person steps out of frame, the cover can drift or stop, and those are exactly the frames where a face slips through.
Nothing in the app finds the faces for you either. Spotting the person at the edge of a crowd shot is your job, and on a phone screen it's easy to miss one that only appears for a second.
Re-editing afterwards adds work: trim the clip or change its speed after the covers are in place and each one needs re-checking against the new timing.
What tends to go wrong
A few things come up again and again with stickers as face covers:
- A face that appears partway through gets missed, because nothing flags it — you only find it on playback.
- Tracking lost on a fast turn, leaving a few frames where the face is visible.
- Cover sized too tight, so an ear or jawline shows when the head turns side-on.
- Stickers too short on the timeline, so the cover disappears before the person does.
InShot vs. Deface
| InShot | Deface | |
|---|---|---|
| Time for one still face | 2–3 minutes of setup | About half a second |
| Moving subject in video | Tracking per sticker, then a playback check | Tracked automatically, frame by frame |
| Multiple faces | You find each face and add a sticker for it | Detected together, toggle each on or off |
| Works offline | Yes | Yes |
| Removes photo/video metadata | No | Photo: source EXIF/GPS omitted; video: removal control |
| Cost | Free tier adds a watermark; removing it needs a subscription | Free with daily export allowance |
The faster way
Deface skips the find-place-track-check loop. Import the same photo or video and it detects every face on device in about half a second, including the person at the edge of the frame, and tracks each one through the shot — nothing to place, size or re-check face by face.
Pick blur, pixelate, a solid block, an emoji or an Eye Bar, and it's applied to every detected face at once, switchable afterwards without re-processing. Each face has its own on/off toggle, and a manual region tool handles anything the detector isn't meant to catch, like a sign or a screen. Photo exports omit source EXIF or GPS; video has a separate Remove metadata control.
Frequently asked questions
Does InShot detect faces automatically?
No. InShot can track a sticker you place, but it doesn't find faces. You spot each face, put a Mosaic or Blur sticker on it and track it yourself.
Can InShot blur a moving face in a video?
Yes. Place a Mosaic or Blur sticker over the face, use InShot's tracking on it, then play the clip back and correct any frames where the cover slides off. Repeat for each face.
How do I remove the InShot watermark after blurring a face?
The watermark is tied to InShot's free tier generally, not to the blur effect specifically — it's removed by upgrading to the paid version, the same as any other export.
Can I blur a face in an InShot photo instead of video?
Yes — the same Mosaic or Blur cover works on a photo, and it's simpler because there's no movement to track. Each face still needs its own cover.
Is there a faster way to blur a face on iPhone than InShot?
Yes. Deface finds and tracks every face automatically, with nothing to place or size — pick a style and export.
Does re-trimming an InShot clip break an existing face blur?
It can. Covers are placed against the clip's timing, so trimming, re-speeding or re-cutting after the fact means checking each one again.
Blur every face in one tap.
Deface finds faces automatically on your iPhone. Your media stays on your device.
