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How to hide faces in videos with PutMask

A new application for Android allows improvement in Privacy and security of any video: PutMask blurs all the faces of any video in the gallery. Adjust the size of the pixels, colors for the blur and automatic face detection: you can share your videos without anyone being recognized.

In social networks it is so easy to share multimedia content that often we do not even think about the repercussions that being recognized in a photo or video may have. In the first type it is very easy to hide the face since just edit it and put an Emoji, for example. But what if we want to share a recording with pixelated faces? Going frame by frame of the video is an ordeal, which is why PutMask is so useful: this application allows you to hide the faces of any video. And the whole process is done on the phone.

PutMask, an offline video editor with facial recognition

The editor is somewhat complex, but the results pay off

The name of the application already makes its intentions very clear: it is an app to put ‘masks’ on faces. Basically PutMask applies a pixelation to the faces so that they cannot be recognized.. This is useful when you want to share a video of the children, for example, also if you want to upload a recording to the Internet without having the option of someone knowing who you are.

The app is very complete and works great according to our tests, but it is not exactly easy to use: menus, buttons and settings require some learning. Once you have passed the truth is that PutMask is really useful: you will have all the pixelated faces of a video in a matter of a couple of minutes. Even if multiple people appear in the recording: once the faces of a frame of the video have been detected PutMask can apply the pixelation on the rest following the movement of the faces.

To hide the faces of any video you must do the following:

Install the app and open it.
Give PutMask storage permission (required to upload the videos) and search the gallery for the recording you want to edit.
Once you have loaded the video, look for the box where all the faces appear (move your finger along the timeline). This is important as PutMask does not work automatically hiding all faces: it is you who must choose them.
Go to the ‘Face track’ menu and click on ‘Detect faces’. The application will detect the faces and apply a frame to each one with its respective number.
Click on the faces you want to pixelate or mark an ‘All’ to choose them all.

Go to ‘Edit’ and click on the faces you are going to pixelate. You will see that in each one there are options: in ‘Color’ you can choose the color of the pixels, in ‘Pixel rate’ the size of said pixels.
Once you have chosen the edition, click on ‘Export’, choose the quality of the video and if you want a custom file name. Then finish the process with ‘Export’.

PutMask will go through four frames to apply the chosen pixelation to all the faces you marked, always without hiding the rest of the footage: just the faces. Also, you can add filters if you want to hide other parts of the video and adjust reference frames with ‘Key frame’ to mark positions where to hide other objects or faces that PutMask has not automatically recognized.

PutMask allows you to customize the pixelation

The application allows you to hide faces in a simple way, also very powerful. It’s free, has no ads, does not connect to the internet and works fully on the phone. Of course, it applies a watermark to the edited recordings.