Blur background

How to use Blur Background

1. 1Choose a photo (JPG, PNG, WebP or iPhone HEIC), take one with your camera, or tap the example to see it work. One person or one clear subject works best; for a group photo, switch to Faces.
2. 2Tap “Blur the background”. The first time, the AI (about 49 MB) downloads once; then it finds the subject and reads how far away each part of the photo is.
3. 3Set the strength. Keep Natural for the camera look, or choose Even to blur the whole background the same. Tap the photo to choose what stays sharp.
4. 4Drag the line across the photo to compare before and after, then save the blurred photo at full size as a JPG or PNG, or as WebP where your browser can write it.

Why use Blur Background

Blur by depth, like a lens

Depth Anything V2 reads how far each part of the photo is, so the ground at your feet and the wall you lean on stay sharper while the far background blurs most, as a real lens renders it.

Clean edges, hair included

A matting AI cuts the subject out, and the blur is worked out from the background alone, so your colours never smear into the background and no halo forms around your hair.

Lights turn into bokeh

The blur is a disc, the shape of a lens opening, mixed in linear light like real glass, so street lights and bright points open into round discs instead of a grey haze.

Private, and offline after the first use

Both AI models run in your browser, so the photo never leaves your device. They are kept there after the first download, and once the page has loaded, the next photos blur without a connection.

About this tool

A phone’s portrait mode looks real because it knows how far things are: the blur grows with distance, as it does through a camera lens. Many tools that blur an image background only cut the person out and blur everything else the same amount, so the floor under your feet is as soft as the horizon and the photo looks like a sticker on a blurred card. This tool uses two AI models: one outlines the subject, hair and all, and the other reads the depth of every part of the photo. Things at your distance stay sharp, nearer and farther things blur in proportion. On 60 full-body photos from a public test set that the models had never seen, the ground just below the feet was blurred to about a quarter of the full strength on average, where a cut-out blur takes it all the way. Bright points are boosted before the blur, so they open into the round discs photographers call bokeh.

It works on photos, not on video, and not on video calls: to blur your background in Zoom, Teams or Google Meet, use the setting in those apps. The subject finder is made for people, but it also outlines many pets, cups, plants and products; when it picks the wrong thing, or nothing, tap what should stay sharp and the focus moves there, with a softer edge than around a person. If part of you comes out blurred (a shoe, a bag you hold), keep Natural: things at your distance stay sharp even when the outline misses them. Photos over 16 megapixels are worked on at 16, the most a phone can handle, and saved at that size.

Frequently asked questions