How to Blur Faces on iPhone. Built-in Options vs Free Mobile App

iPhone Built-In Tools for Blurring Faces

Before we dive in, there’s something you need to know. The iPhone’s built-in photo editor doesn’t have the option of adding an actual blur. Instead, it allows you to cover faces with different things – a marker stroke, for instance. Faces can be hidden in a subtle, unobtrusive way or you can also opt for something fun and amusing.

There are 3 tools that allow you to blur faces on your iPhone photos.

Markup tool

Markup is a handy tool that’s included in the iPhone Photos app. It allows you to draw lines of varying thicknesses right on a photo. To blur faces without spoiling the overall look of your image, it is better to use the markup marker that has the color, the level of transparency and the thickness of your choice.

Follow these steps to blur faces on iPhone with the markup marker:

Open your photo in the iPhone Photos app.
Tap on the Edit button in the top right corner.
Tap on the Pen icon to open the Markup tool.
Choose the marker in the menu at the bottom and set the necessary thickness.
Select the color and the level of opacity.
With the marker, draw some strokes over the faces that you want to hide.

The main benefits of this tool:

it is free and available right at your fingertips.
you can choose the color that is already present in your photo; this way, you will hide faces more unobtrusively.

The main drawbacks:

marker strokes will look sloppy and not very professional since you can draw them only with your fingers.
if there are several faces that you want to hide, this process can be quite time-consuming.
you can edit only one photo at a time.

Add shapes

Now it is time to learn how to blur faces on iPhone using the markup shapes. If you prefer to cover faces with clean-cut shapes rather than marker strokes, you should use a different tool. To do this, while you’re in the markup section, click on “+” in the bottom right corner. You will see a menu with different shapes.

It is better to choose a circle for a face. Place the shape over the face that you want to hide, then use your finger to turn the circle into an oval and change its size. Fill the shape with the color that you want.

If you need to hide more faces, click on the shape that you created and choose “duplicate”.

In some cases blurring faces on iPhone photos with a shape may look rather neat and clean. However, with this tool, you won’t be able to process several photos at a time, either.

Blur faces with emojis

If all you want is to hide faces and you are okay with the result looking a bit distracting, you can cover faces with emojis – it’s quite fun, isn’t it?

Here’s what you need to do:

Launch the Markup tool again.
Tap on the “+” button and choose “Text”.
Double tap the Text box and then remove the default caption.
Go to the emoji’s gallery on the keyboard of your iPhone.
Select the emoji you need.
Adjust the size of the emoji using the menu for text editing in the bottom left corner and moving the blue borders of the box.
Place the emoji over the face. All done!

This way of covering faces is the most attention-grabbing. It’s great if you want to share some personal photos with your friends and family. But it won’t be suitable if you need to post images on your business account.

As it has already been mentioned, none of the iPhone’s built in tools give you the opportunity to actually blur faces. The main purpose of face blur on iPhone is to hide certain faces without distracting from the photo itself. So let’s dive into how to blur faces on iPhone using third-party tool Watermarkly, which is free to use.

Blur Faces Free

How to blur faces on iPhone with Watermarkly

Watermarkly is an easy-to-use blurring tool that is available for free. The key difference between Watermarkly and the iPhone built-in tools is that it actually blurs faces. Let’s check how it works.

Download Watermarkly-Blur faces from App Store.
Open the app and select the image you want to process.
Once the photo is uploaded, you’ll see that all the faces are already blurred.
If you are satisfied with the result, tap on “Blur images” and save the processed photo to the Photos gallery.
It is possible to do some editing, if necessary. First of all, if you don’t want to hide some faces in the photo, you can remove the blur from them. Tap on “Objects” at the bottom and choose the face icons.
You can also adjust the intensity of the blurred zone.
If a face is tilted, you can tilt the blurred zone as well. To do this, tap on it. The blue borders will show up. Tilt the face by tapping on the blue circle, then moving your finger to the left or to the right. You will also be able to change the shape of the blurred zone as well as resize it.

Let’s compare two photos. One of them was processed using Watermarkly, while the other one – using the Markup tool. Hands down, the first image looks more professional. The faces of women in the crowd are hidden, yet, thanks to the subtlety of the blur, all the attention is still focused on the main subjects of this photo. In fact, Watermarkly’s blur is hardly noticeable; the same cannot be said about the second image.

It is worth mentioning that Watermarkly has some additional advantages over iPhone’s Markup as well:

It offers batch blurring. You don’t need to edit each photo separately. Just upload all the photos to the app and get the results immediately.
It detects faces automatically. You don't have to blur every face manually. The app will do everything for you. Just make some small adjustments if necessary.
It creates a blur with smooth borders. Once the processed photos are downloaded to your iPhone’s gallery, you’ll notice that the borders of the face blur look softer and more natural than while editing in the app.
It has a wide range of editing tools. You can edit the blur however you want. It doesn’t matter if the face is tilted, too big or too small. It is perfectly possible to fine-tune the blurred area in a very precise way.

Watermarkly has one drawback for iPhone users, though. In the free version you can process up to 5 images per day. Also, downloading the processed images is only possible after watching an ad.