How to hide personal information of photos on phone

Sometimes a great photo has something you don't want to share—like a license plate, an address, or even a stranger's face. Instead of skipping uploading, you can quickly blur or mask sensitive areas with built-in tools and free apps.

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Hide sensitive parts of photos on iPhone

The iPhone's built-in photo editor doesn't have a blur tool. However, you can still hide sensitive parts of a photo using the Markup tool. This tool gives you options to mask parts of a photo using a variety of tools, such as pens, shapes, emojis, and stickers. Here's how to use it:

1. Open the Photos app and find the photo you want to edit.
2. Tap the edit icon at the bottom.
3. Tap the Markup icon (a pencil inside a circle) at the top.
4. Select the pen tool and draw on sensitive parts of the photo. You can click on the color wheel at the bottom to choose a pen color that matches the subject.
5. If you want to cover parts of the photo instead of drawing on them, tap the plus icon to add shapes, stickers, or even emojis.
6. Once you're happy with the photo, tap Done in the upper right corner to save it.

Hide sensitive parts of photos on Android

Similar to iPhone, Google Photos on Android doesn't have a dedicated blur tool, so you can't blur parts of your photos. However, you can easily hide sensitive areas in your photos using the Pen tool. Here's how:

1. Open the Google Photos app and select the photo you want to edit.
2. Click on the Edit option at the bottom.
3. In the edit menu, find the Markup tool and tap it.
4. Tap the Pen option , select a color that matches the object or area you want to hide, and draw over it.
5. When you're satisfied, tap Done and then tap Save copy to keep the original photo while saving the edited version.

Blur or hide part of a photo on Samsung Galaxy phones

Unlike Apple Photos and Google Photos, the photo editor in Samsung's Gallery app has a blur tool. So if you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, you can blur or hide sensitive parts of your photos using the following steps:

1. Open the Gallery app on your Samsung phone and open the photo you want to edit.
2. Tap the pencil icon at the bottom of the screen to open the photo in the photo editor.
3. Find the decoration icon (it looks like a smiley face holding a pencil) and tap it.
4. Select the mosaic pen and choose your preferred blur pattern. You can use the slider to increase or decrease the thickness of the pen.
5. Use your finger to draw over the areas you want to blur.
6. When done, tap Save at the top or tap the three-dot menu and select Save copy .

Easily blur parts of photos on any phone with Canva

Canva is a versatile design tool available on both Android and iPhone. It offers a number of useful photo editing options, including a blur tool. So if you don’t have a Samsung phone but want to use a blur tool, Canva is a great alternative.

The best part is that this feature doesn't require a Canva Pro subscription, so you can blur parts of your photos on your phone for free. Here's what you need to do:

1. Open Canva, click the plus icon at the bottom and select Upload .
2. Find and select your photo and tap Edit image .
3. Select Effects > Blur and set your preferred brush size and blur intensity.
4. Use your finger to swipe over the areas you want to blur.
5. Tap Save in the upper right corner and select Download to get to the edited image on your phone.

Warning : Note that simply blurring or adding shapes to an image is not a perfect solution, as there are tools that can undo these effects. To better protect sensitive details, we recommend taking a screenshot of the edited image and sharing the screenshot. This will flatten the edits, making it difficult for anyone to retrieve the original information.

How to use Skitch to blur content on images

Many people when sharing photos with friends on the phone will worry about personal information, some information needs to be kept secret and do not want to reveal. If you transfer the image to the computer and then use photo editing software to blur the information that needs to be hidden, it will take a lot of time. If so, you can use the Skitch application for Android, iOS.

Basically, Skitch is an image editing application that has the ability to blur all personal and confidential information that users want to hide when sharing images. The following article will guide readers on how to use the Skitch application to blur content on images.

• Download Skitch Android App
• Download Skitch iOS app

Step 1:

Currently, the Skitch application is only available on the iOS operating system, and for Android you have to download the apk file to your device. You install the application according to the link above, then start the application. In the first interface, you will see the application introducing the features, press the X to skip.

Next, the application will ask the user to allow access to the Camera, click OK.

Step 2:

You will come to the photo capture interface on Skitch. Here, users can take a photo to edit immediately. Or click on the Photo section to use an available image in the library. The application will ask you to agree to allow access to the photo album , click OK.

Step 3:

Select the image you want to edit and tap the arrow icon in the bottom right corner of the screen. A list of image editing options will appear, tap pixelate at the top .

Step 4:

Next, you just need to circle the area where you want to hide your personal information . You can zoom in or out of the photo to easily adjust the circled area. You will immediately see the information on the photo blurred as below.

If you want to remove the blur area , click on the arrow icon above. When you click on the 3 dots icon, you will have some more options. Finally, click on the image sharing icon in the top right corner of the interface.

Step 5:

Skitch app provides users with image sharing options. You can share the image to Facebook, Twitter or tap on More Apps. Some more apps available on the device appear.

Step 6:

If you tap on Save , you will have a list of photo save options such as save to Photos folder or tap More... for more photo save options. When saving a photo to the device's gallery, the user will receive a notification as shown below.

With the Skitch photo editing application, you can hide sensitive information, personal information that you do not want others to see when sharing images, especially on social networks. The application also integrates many options for sharing photos, or saving photos to the device for us to choose from.

Good luck!

See also:

• 15 Best Photo Editing Apps for Android
• The best free photo editing software
• Photo editing app Pixelmator is coming to iPhone