How to Blur Faces in a Video on Android

Android phones come with good photo editors, but none of the built-in apps can blur a face in a video. Samsung Gallery and Google Photos let you trim, crop, add filters and change the speed of a clip; they do not let you put a blur over one person and have it follow them. Here is what works instead, from quickest to most manual.

What the built-in apps can do

For photos:

• Samsung Gallery (One UI) has blur and pixelate brushes in the photo editor. Open the photo, tap the pencil, and look under Decorations or Tools for the blur or mosaic brush (the menu names change between One UI versions). Paint over each face.
• Google Photos has no brush for blurring a chosen face. Its blur tools are portrait effects that blur the background.

For videos: neither app has a face blur or mosaic tool. You need something else.

Blur every face automatically in your browser

FaceBlur works in Chrome on Android, with nothing to install.

1. Open faceblur.org in Chrome and tap Upload a video to blur faces. Pick the clip from your gallery.
2. The page scans the video and shows each person it found as a thumbnail.
3. Tap the people who should stay clear. Everyone else is blurred.
4. Choose blur, pixelate or black box, play the preview, then tap Blur & download under Private mode.

Private mode does everything on your phone: the video is never uploaded, and it is free. The MP4 keeps the original resolution, frame rate and sound.

Two honest limits. Phones are slower than computers: in our tests, a 1-minute 1080p clip took about a minute on a recent laptop, and a mid-range phone will take several times longer. And automatic detection can miss faces that are turned to the side, partly hidden or tiny in the background. In our tests on eight clips, about 1 in 10 faces was missed in at least one frame. Watch the result once before you post it.

Use a video editor with masks

If you want full manual control, mobile editors such as CapCut, PowerDirector or KineMaster let you add a blur or mosaic effect and limit it to a shape. The common workflow:

1. Add the clip to a project and split it at the part where the face appears.
2. Add a blur or mosaic effect, then a mask (circle) on that effect or on an overlay copy of the clip.
3. Move the circle over the face and add keyframes as the person moves: one every few frames when they walk, fewer for an interview.
4. Export and check every second.

Some of these apps have automatic tracking in their paid tiers, and the menus change often, so the exact buttons vary. Expect manual keyframing to take a few minutes per face for every 10 seconds of movement.

Do it on a computer instead

For long videos (a vlog, a classroom recording, a meeting), copy the file to a computer. FaceBlur runs the same way in Chrome, Edge or Safari on a laptop and is much faster. Desktop editors like Premiere Pro can also track a mask; see how to blur faces in Premiere Pro.

Quick answers

Can Samsung Gallery blur faces in videos? No. Its blur and mosaic brushes work on photos only.

Can Google Photos blur a face? Not a chosen face, in photos or videos. Its blur effects blur the background.

Is there a free app to blur faces in video on Android? You do not need an app: FaceBlur's Private mode is free and runs in Chrome. For photos, use the free photo face blur.