How to Easily Pixelate Faces in Photos with Apple Intelligence

One of the standout features in Apple Intelligence is the ability to clean up and remove distractions from your photos. But it’s even more useful than that—you can also blur people’s faces with a pixelation effect. For me as a teacher, this is fantastic for protecting my students’ privacy when sharing photos on the school website or similar platforms.

When editing a photo, you can start by selecting the Cleanup Tool, which lets you remove unwanted objects. But if there’s a face (or multiple faces) you’d like to blur, just draw a circle around each face with the tool, and Apple Intelligence will automatically apply a pixelated Safety Filter over it. This works for as many faces as you need, and you can undo and adjust if you don’t get it quite right on the first try.

Another great feature for teachers to know: this tool works offline, so if your iPad is in Airplane Mode, everything remains on-device, meaning student photos aren’t uploaded to Apple’s servers. It’s a fantastic way to ensure privacy without compromising on functionality.