How to blur faces on iPhone

iOS has no “blur face” button, but there are four ways to hide a face with what’s already on your phone. Here’s how each one works, where it falls short, and the fastest route for photos and videos.

By the BlurTap team · Updated October 31, 2026

Quick comparison

Method 1: Clean Up in the Photos app

Clean Up is Apple’s object-removal tool. If you brush over a person’s face with it, Photos doesn’t try to erase the face. It covers it with a pixelated mosaic instead. This is the closest thing iOS has to a built-in face blur.

1. Open the photo in Photos and tap Edit (the sliders icon).
2. Tap Clean Up. The first time, iOS may need a minute to download it.
3. Brush over or circle the face. Photos replaces it with a pixelated patch.
4. Repeat for each face, then tap Done.

Limits: Clean Up needs an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro or newer) with Apple Intelligence turned on. It works on photos only, one face per stroke, and the edit is stored in your library, so the original can be restored with Revert. That’s handy for you, but make sure you share the edited version.

Method 2: Markup pen or a shape

Markup works on every iPhone. It doesn’t blur. It paints over the face, which hides it just as well if you do it properly.

1. Open the photo in Photos, tap Edit, then the Markup (pen tip) icon.
2. Tap + and add a shape (a filled circle or square works best). Or pick the pen and set opacity to 100%.
3. Make the shape solid, then drag and resize it over each face.
4. Tap Done.

Limits: slow with more than a couple of faces, easy to miss someone in the background, and it looks heavy-handed in a photo you want to post.

Method 3: Blurring faces in videos

There’s no built-in way. The Photos editor and iMovie can crop, trim and filter a whole clip, but neither can blur part of the frame that moves. Your options:

• Crop the person out in Photos (Edit → Crop), if they’re near the edge for the whole clip.
• A desktop editor such as Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve, where you draw a mask and keyframe it as the face moves. This is accurate but slow.
• An app that detects faces automatically in every frame, which is what BlurTap does.

Step-by-step for each option: how to blur a face in a video on iPhone.

Method 4: Blur faces automatically with BlurTap

1. Open BlurTap and pick a photo, several photos or a video.
2. BlurTap detects the faces and blurs them, along with license plates, text and addresses if you want those hidden too.
3. Check the result, then save or share. The copy you share has the blur baked in and the GPS location removed.

Everything runs on the iPhone itself. Nothing is uploaded. If you just need one photo done on a computer, our free online face blur works in the browser the same way.

Don’t forget the location

A blurred face doesn’t help much if the photo still says where it was taken. iPhone photos usually carry GPS coordinates in their metadata. To strip them when sharing from Photos:

1. Select the photo and tap Share.
2. Tap Options under the photo preview at the top of the share sheet.
3. Turn off Location, tap Done, then share.

You can also remove it permanently: open the photo, swipe up (or tap ⓘ), tap Adjust next to the map, and choose No Location. To stop the Camera recording it at all, go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera and choose Never. More detail, including bulk removal: how to remove location from photos on iPhone.

A short checklist before you post

• Zoom in on the background: people in windows, reflections, other screens.
• Look for house numbers, street signs, school logos and name tags.
• Check car plates, parcel labels and anything with handwriting.
• Share without location.