Love to stay private? Want to automatically blur faces from the pictures you upload online? We are here to help you out.
We all love our privacy, but suppose you have a picture capturing 20 people in a protest, there’s a high risk of getting threatened by oppositions. We can’t post that kind of photos on social media without hiding our faces. Social media plays an essential role in influencing others. Blurring 20 faces is a problematic task, so we need some smarter way for this.
The Signal app is known for encrypting messages; now, it comes with a completely new ‘Blur Tool’ feature. After the George Floyd and Breonna Tayor murder incident in May 2020, there was a mass protest. So, it is necessary to hide their identity while posting them on social media because they may get harmed by someone later. It could be useful in schools and Colleges related protests as it will help students to hide their identity from teachers and professors while protesting.
In today’s article, we are going to know about this Automatic Blur Tool from Signal App and give you the step by step guide to do it.
Here’s an overview.
About Signal:
The ‘Signal’ is a free software application with end-to-end encryption. It is available on Android, iOS, and desktop platforms. It allows users to send end-to-end encrypted messages, images, videos, and audio files to another signal user. It uses your phone contacts for connecting peoples, just like WhatsApp. Both parties must have a data connection for conversation, and because of this, it doesn’t charge any expenses.
The latest version of Signal for iOS and Android introduced the Blur tool in the image editor. The new blur tool automatically blurs the faces and thus protects your privacy while sharing pictures on social media. It does its job within a second. The blur tool maintains your privacy locally on your device.
It is not possible to detect human faces 100% of the time accurately, but there’s no need to worry as the blur brush offers to do it manually. Using this feature, you can also blur other objects or areas to protect your privacy. Let’s see, how to blur faces using blur tool.
Why the Signal app?
As it provides end-to-end encryption, the messages or files you share will only be seen by you and the receiver. Blurring faces using editing applications like Photoshop or PicsArt could be complicated and stressful, especially if it has a group of peoples. Also, its editing works within the app itself so that no data transferred in government servers. This removes every possibility of a data leak.
The signal app is just like WhatsApp and iMessage, but it more centered towards privacy rather than cute emoticons. It includes all essential features of o messaging app like messaging, group chats, editing pictures, video calling, and voice calling. In this way, it is the most secure and straightforward to use application.
Download Signal App:
You can download the Signal app from below.
How to use the Signal Blur Tool?
Step 1:
Download the Signal app from the above link and install it. Create an account. (avoid this step if you already have an account on Signal)
Step 2:
Open the Signal app and tap on the camera icon, as shown in the below image.
Step 3:
Tap on the photos icon (showing your recently saved image). And select the image that you want to edit.
Step 4:
Tap on the circular icon (third icon from right-top). If you are using the app for first the first time, it will show a message informing you about the blur tool feature.
Step 5:
Toggle on the “Blur Faces” option present on the bottom-center.
Step 6:
It will automatically blur the human faces using artificial intelligence. If somehow it doesn’t blur any face, you can simply draw the blur over his/her face or anything else you want to blur.
Step 7:
Tap on the tick button. Now, you can crop, add text, add sticker or draw, if you want to.
Step 8:
You can write a message in the “signal message” box and send it to your preferred contact. You can also download the image from there and share it on other social media platforms.
Conclusion:
In this article, we discussed the Signal application and its latest “blur tool” feature. The end-to-end encryption offered by the Signal app provides next-level privacy and secure way of sharing files and messages. We saw that its new “blur tool” can blur human faces quickly. With the help of this article, users can now blur the faces of a large number of people in one go. Let us know in the comments section below if you have any doubts related to the Signal app or its new blur tool.
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I’m a CSE student, technical blogger, writer, and graphic designer. I love writing about upcoming technologies, hardware, and the topics revolving around them.
