How to hide names in chat screenshots before sharing

You want to share a useful exchange, but the screenshot also contains a name, a profile picture and a phone number. Cropping the header helps with one part of the image. It does little for a name mentioned halfway through the conversation.

The Chat Screenshot Cleaner lets you choose a name and cover its recognised matches across several screenshots. You can add a label such as Person A, cover other details, and join the images when you are finished. Start with the sample screenshots if you want to see the process before opening your own.

Find the name, then check its other forms

Add your screenshots and text scanning starts automatically. You can stop it at any time or select Scan text again for another pass. Enter the name as it appears in the detected text, or tap a word in the preview. If you enter Alex Morgan, the search finds that phrase without requiring the same capitalisation. It will not automatically know that Alex, @alexm and A. Morgan refer to the same person.

Apply the cover, then search any other forms you need to hide. An optional anonymous label makes a conversation with several people easier to follow: use Person A for one participant and Person B for another. Labels replace the pixels inside your covers; they do not rewrite the messages.

The text reader currently uses an English model. Small lettering, unusual fonts and other languages can produce missed or misspelled words. Check the image itself and draw a cover wherever detection has missed something.

For dark chats or coloured bubbles, the cleaner adjusts contrast and makes a second reading pass automatically. Each screenshot shows how many words were found. If that count is zero or parts of the conversation are missing, change Screenshot appearance and scan again. Use the original full-size screenshot where possible; a compressed copy may have lost small letters or punctuation.

Look beyond the header

Before marking a screenshot as reviewed, look through these places:

• Message text: quoted replies, signatures and mentions can repeat a name.
• Profile pictures: the same avatar may appear beside several messages.
• Contact details: email addresses and phone numbers may sit inside a message or shared contact card.
• Other clues: a group title, workplace, address or visible notification may reveal more than you intended.

Contact suggestions help find email and phone-number patterns. Check them before applying covers, because an ordinary number can resemble a phone number. For avatars, draw a tight cover around one and choose Find this avatar in all screenshots. This searches for copies of the picture at a similar scale. Changed crops or sizes may not match.

You can also try face detection or add covers by hand. For a photo without chat text, the simpler face blur tool may be a better fit. For a single image needing manual boxes, use image redaction.

Join screenshots without repeating messages

Put the images in conversation order using the arrows. In Join & download, trim repeated app headers and footers, then try the overlap suggestion. It looks for matching sections between neighbouring screenshots.

Read the last message before each join and the first message after it. If a message is repeated or cut short, adjust the trims. Plain backgrounds, repeated headers and different image scales can prevent a reliable automatic match. Undo restores the previous trims.

Choose one long PNG for a continuous conversation, or separate PNGs in a ZIP when the conversation is too long. A smaller joined width reduces file size but also makes text smaller, so inspect readability before sharing.

Inspect the file you will share

The cleaner uses solid covers. In the exported PNG, covered pixels are replaced, and the file contains no editing layers, original image attachment or copied original metadata. Your chosen label is visible in the image.

That does not make every screenshot anonymous. Uncovered message content and context can still identify someone. Review each screenshot, prepare the download, and inspect the actual prepared PNG before saving. Screenshots and recognised text stay in your browser tab; closing or reloading the tab clears the editing session.