How to Blur a Face in a Video on iPhone

Updated 27 August 2026

Sharing a video often means putting other people in frame: a bystander, a child, a number plate or a house number in the background. Blurring those details before you post keeps them private, and on an iPhone it only takes a couple of minutes.

Can you do it with the built-in apps?

The built-in Photos app is great for trimming and colour, but it has no tool for hiding a face or number plate inside a video. You can draw on a still photo with Markup, yet there is no simple way to cover a moving subject frame by frame. A purpose-built blur tool solves this by tracking the subject for you.

Step by step

Here is the full flow using Blur-Video.

1. Install Blur-Video from the App Store and open it, then choose the video you want to edit from your library.
2. Tap Add Blur and pick a shape, either a rectangle or an ellipse, then drag it over the face you want to hide. Because your fingertip sits on top of the very thing you are lining up, the offset control shifts the shape slightly away from your finger so you can see what you are covering.
3. Choose Blur or Pixelate at the top, and use the Strength slider to set how heavy the effect is.
4. Set how long the blur lasts. Each blur area has its own duration, so it can run the length of the clip or cover only the few seconds where the face is actually on screen.
5. Now make the blur follow the face. Turn on auto-tracking Pro and it locks on and tracks the face through the clip by itself. You can also do this by hand on the free version: set keyframes at points along the timeline and move the shape onto the face at each one.
6. Need to hide more than one person? Add another shape and repeat. You can blur several faces or objects in the same video.
7. Scrub the timeline to check the blur stays in place, then tap Save to export your video.

Tips

• Pixelate reads as a deliberate privacy choice, while a soft blur looks more natural. Try both on the same face and keep whichever suits the clip.
• Feathering Pro softens the edge of the blur so it blends into the footage instead of showing a hard box.
• Draw the shape a little larger than the face itself. When someone turns their head or steps towards the camera they grow in frame, and a tight shape can slip off the edge.
• Blur house numbers, screens and logos in the background too, not just faces, before you post to a public account.

Working with a still photo rather than a video? Blur Photo does the same job on a single image.

Frequently asked questions