Introduced in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, the Photos app has a built-in cleanup tool that can intelligently remove and replace unwanted and distracting elements in photos, such as photobombs, blemishes, embarrassing objects, and other details you don’t want anyone else to see. But he also has a hidden superpower: he can pixelate people’s faces with a security filter.
To use the new security filter in Photos, you’ll need to be running the latest software, but you’ll also need a device that supports Apple Intelligence, the backbone of the new privacy filter. That means it only works on the iPhone 15 Pro series, any iPhone 16 model, and iPads or Macs with M1 or A17 Pro chips or newer. Plus, it only works with images, so you’ll still need a third-party app to pixelate or blur faces in videos.
Once you’ve opened a photo in the Photos app, simply tap or click the Edit button and go to the new Clean tab.
Find the face you want to protect. You can pinch the screen or trackpad to pan and zoom the area if necessary.
Then circle or draw lines over the face with your finger, mouse, or Apple Pencil and release. As soon as you let go, the face will pixelate, obscuring the person’s identity, and you’ll see “Identity Protection Applied” (previously “Security Filter Applied”) briefly on the screen.
Sometimes Clean will interpret your circle or brush strokes as elements to remove and replace instead of blurring them. If that’s the case, you can use the Back button to try again. You can also tap “Reset” or click the “Reset Cleanup” button to remove all cleanup edits and start from scratch. This is also useful when you want more or less facial pixelation.
Whether or not you like the Cleanup results, you can open the More menu (•••) and select Report a Problem to share feedback with Apple to help refine and train Apple Intelligence generative models. Previously, the Photos app displayed thumbs up and down icons after using Clear for faster access to the comment form.
Now, all that’s left to do is save the edits you made in Cleanup and the person’s face and identity will be protected every time you share the image with people online, at work, or wherever.
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Cover photo and screenshots from Gadget Hacks.