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How to blur a face in a photo on Android

Google Photos and Samsung Gallery can draw over a picture but have no blur for one area. Here is how to cover or blur a face, built-in first, then in Chrome.

A portrait of a smiling man in a red T-shirt outdoors, his face covered by a blurred oval

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Faces are found and blurred on your device. Nothing is uploaded.

Android’s own photo editors can cover a face but can’t blur one area. In Google Photos, Markup lets you draw over a face with the pen; in Samsung Gallery, Decorations has drawing tools and stickers. To actually blur or pixelate faces, open this page in Chrome, tap Choose photo, tap Faces and then Export photo. The faces are found and blurred on the phone, and nothing is uploaded.

The built-in tools are fine for a quick scribble over one face. When you want a proper blur, several faces covered at once or a cover that looks intentional, the browser route is quicker and works the same on any Android phone with an up-to-date Chrome.

How to blur a face in a photo on Android with Chrome

  1. Open the photo

    Open this page in Chrome, tap Choose photo and pick the picture from your gallery or files.

  2. Let it find the faces

    Faces are found on your phone as soon as the photo opens, each covered with a blurred oval. To keep one person visible, tap their picture under Faces and turn off Hide this face.

  3. Cover anything missed

    Drag on the photo to box a face the detector skipped, or tap Part of the photo and switch Draw with to Brush to paint over a name or sign.

  4. Save it

    Tap Export photo, then Download photo to save it with your downloads, or Share or save to Photos to send it to another app.

What Google Photos can do

Open the photo in Google Photos, tap Edit, and look for Markup among the tools. It offers a pen and a highlighter in a choice of colours; the pen at full strength can scribble a face out. It is quick, but the result looks hand-drawn.

Google Photos also has blur effects for portraits, which soften the background behind a person. That is the opposite of hiding a face, and it is not available for a chosen area. There is no blur or pixelate brush for one part of the picture.

In Samsung Gallery, open the photo, tap the edit (pencil) button and look for Decorations, which holds drawing pens, stickers and text. A sticker or a solid shape drawn with the pen can cover a face. Menu names and positions vary between One UI versions, so if yours looks different, look for the drawing or sticker tools in the editor.

Like Google Photos, it covers rather than blurs, and each face has to be done by hand.

Blur faces properly in Chrome

The editor on this page runs in Chrome like any website. Face detection runs on the phone (the detector downloads once, about 3 MB), so the picture never leaves it. Every face in the photo is found in one go, which matters for group shots.

Under Look you can switch between Blur, Pixelate and Black box, and change any single face with Look for this area. For details that aren’t faces, choose Part of the photo and draw a box, or paint with the brush. The face blur guide covers group photos and keeping one person visible.

Where the blurred photo is saved

Download photo saves the file to the Downloads folder, where Google Photos and Gallery usually pick it up under Downloads or a Download album. Share or save to Photos opens the Android share sheet, so you can send the copy straight to a messaging app or a social app.

The copy is written fresh from the pixels, so it does not carry the location, phone model or date details your camera recorded. To blur a clip rather than a photo, see blurring a video on Android.

Questions about this kind of blur

Can Google Photos blur a face?

Not with a blur. Markup can draw over a face with the pen. Google Photos’ blur effects soften the background behind a person instead.

Does Samsung Gallery have a blur tool for faces?

Gallery’s editor has drawing tools and stickers under Decorations, which can cover a face. For a true blur or pixelation, use a browser tool like this one.

How do I blur a face on Android for free?

Open this page in Chrome, tap Choose photo, tap Faces and tap Export photo. There is no app to install and no watermark.

Will it work on an older Android phone?

It needs an up-to-date Chrome or another modern browser. Face finding is slower on older phones, but the result is the same.

Is the photo uploaded from my phone?

No. Everything runs in Chrome on the phone, and the saved copy leaves out the location your camera stored.