Blur faces in photos — or give them new ones

Every way to hide a face, compared

How to blur a face in a photo

On an iPhone

On an iPhone 15 Pro or newer with Apple Intelligence turned on, open the photo in Photos, tap Edit, choose Clean Up and scribble over the face. Photos recognises it's a face and pixelates it rather than erasing it. On older iPhones, use Markup to draw a filled shape over the face. Our step-by-step iPhone guide covers both.

On Android

Open the photo in your gallery app's editor and use its drawing or markup tool to cover the face, or install a face blur app that detects faces for you. Check what the app does with your photos before you upload pictures of children.

On a computer

1. Open the photo in an online face blur tool, Canva, Photoshop or GIMP.
2. Select each face — most face blur tools find them automatically.
3. Apply a blur or pixelate effect, turn the strength up until the face can't be made out, and download.

Why blurring isn't enough for photos of children

A blur hides the details of a face, not the person. Parents, classmates and anyone else who knows a child can still pick them out from their hair, their build, their uniform and where they're standing. And obscuring a face isn't the same as removing it: researchers at Cornell Tech and the University of Texas showed that machine learning can recognise faces through blurring and pixelation.

That matters more now than it did. In May 2026 UK schools were advised to take identifiable photos of pupils offline because they were being used to make AI abuse images — read what schools can and can't post.

And blurred photos don't do the job they were taken for. Nobody wants a newsletter full of smudges or a sports-day post where every child is a smiley face.

Replace faces instead of blurring them

Safeguard Vision finds every face in the photo. You tap the ones to change — or Change all — and each gets a newly generated face with the same approximate age, expression and complexion, matched to the child's own neck and hands and lit to match the photo. Everyone you don't tap, the room, the uniforms and the moment stay exactly as they were.

1. Drop in your photos — one photo or a whole sports day, including iPhone HEIC files.
2. Tap the faces to change. Leave staff, or children whose parents have consented, as they are.
3. Download and post. About 20 seconds a photo.

Your first 2 photos are free, with no card. After that, packs start at £19 for 50 photos — no subscription, and they never expire. See pricing.