How to Hide a Face in a Screenshot on iPhone and Mac
By Roman Resenchuk,
Here is how to hide a face in a screenshot: open it in CloudShots, tap Redact, choose Redact faces, and every face is covered. Redact all text and Blur background sit in the same menu. Face detection runs on your device, and you can restore the original whenever you need it.
CloudShots is a screenshot app for iPhone, iPad and Mac that reads, names and syncs your screenshots, and I build it on weekends. This short is about the moment right before you share one.
You take a screenshot of a travel post to send a friend the place, and there is a stranger's face in the middle of it. Or a chat with names and phone numbers you would rather not pass along. The usual fix is a scribble with a marker, which is slow, looks messy and often misses a corner. The video shows a faster way: one menu, one tap, and the face is gone from the copy you share.
How to hide a face in a screenshot, step by step
- Open the screenshot in CloudShots and tap Edit.
- Open the operations menu and find the Redact section.
- Tap Redact faces. CloudShots finds every face and covers it.
- Tap Redact all text if names, numbers or messages should go too.
- Tap Blur background to keep the subject sharp and soften everything behind it.
- Tap Done, then share. You can restore the original later from the same screenshot.
On the Mac the editor has the same tools, and the redaction guide for Mac walks through them with the panel open beside your work.
What each tool hides
Redact faces uses Apple's Vision framework to find faces and places a redaction over each one. It works on photos of people inside a screenshot, like a social post or a video call, and you can still draw your own redaction over anything it missed.
Redact all text covers every line the on-device text recognition finds: names in a chat, an address on a delivery screen, the numbers on a boarding pass. Remove background lifts the subject out, and Blur background keeps the subject and blurs the rest, which suits a product photo or a pet in a messy room. You can combine them: blur the background of a group photo and still redact the one face that should not be there, then check the result before you tap Done.
Can you get the original back?
Yes. Redaction in CloudShots does not throw the original away. Open the screenshot and choose Restore Original to bring it back. On iPhone the edit also applies to the screenshot in Photos, and restoring reverts it there as well. Once you share a screenshot with someone, the edited picture is what they receive; only you, as the owner, can restore it, and doing so stops the sharing first. Nobody you share with can peel the redaction off.
Where the screenshots go
Face detection and text recognition run on your device. There is no CloudShots server that stores or looks at your screenshots; they stay in your private iCloud, and the iCloud screenshot manager page explains how they stay in step across iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Free and Pro
Redaction works on every plan. Free syncs and searches your whole library and opens the newest 30 screenshots; Pro opens the rest and adds cleanup tools. More how-tos live in the guides.
FAQ
How do I hide a face in a screenshot on iPhone?
Open the screenshot in CloudShots, tap Edit, and choose Redact faces from the Redact section. Every face the device finds is covered, and you can draw over anything else by hand.
Can I blur the background of a screenshot instead?
Yes. Blur background in CloudShots keeps the subject sharp and blurs everything behind it. Remove background, in the same menu, lifts the subject out entirely.
Does redaction delete the original screenshot?
No. CloudShots keeps the original, and Restore Original brings it back. After you share a screenshot, only you can restore it, and restoring stops the sharing first.
Is face detection done on a server?
No. Faces and text are found on your device with Apple's Vision framework, and no CloudShots server sees the screenshot.
Transcript
Can I hide a face in a screenshot before I share it? In CloudShots, yes. Redact faces, redact all the text, or blur the background. You can restore the original. Download on CloudShots.app.
More guides
- How to automatically sync screenshots between Mac, iPhone and iPadOne private screenshot history that syncs both ways through iCloud: Mac to iPhone and iPad, and back.
- How to find a screenshot by the text inside itSearch by the words you remember seeing, on any of your devices.
- How to free up the space your screenshots takeClear synced originals from Photos and your Mac without losing your history.
- CloudShots is an iCloud screenshot manager for Mac, iPhone and iPadWhat lives in your own iCloud, how the library limit works, and what stays private.
- One screenshot history for your Mac, iPhone and iPadOne searchable history of every screenshot from your Mac, iPhone and iPad, synced through your own iCloud. Find any shot and free up storage.
- How to pin a screenshot on screen on MacKeep a screenshot floating above your other windows on Mac with ⌘P. Pin up to 6, move and resize them, close with Esc.
- How to redact or blur text and faces in a screenshot on MacBlur, pixelate or cover text, faces and objects in a screenshot on Mac. Redaction in CloudShots is non-destructive: your original stays untouched.
- How to add a background, padding and shadow to a screenshot on MacExport a Mac screenshot with a background, padding, rounded corners and a shadow using Export with Frame in CloudShots. Copy, save or share the result.
- All guides
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