How to Hide Phone Numbers and Addresses in a Screenshot

The problem

Screenshots are the most over-shared files on a phone. An order confirmation shows your address and phone number. A chat shows a stranger’s number. A bank alert shows a card number. You crop the obvious bits and send it, and miss the phone number in the corner, or the address two lines down.

Doing it by hand with a markup tool works, but it’s slow, and the thing you miss is the thing that matters.

What PrivShot does

PrivShot runs text recognition on the image on your phone (tuned for Chinese and English) and looks for:

• Phone numbers
• Addresses
• Resident ID numbers
• Bank card numbers
• Company credit codes
• Names, detected but off by default

Only the matching text is covered, not the whole line. A phone number in a sentence is blurred; the words around it stay readable.

How to do it

1. Take your screenshot as normal.
2. In PrivShot, choose Import from library and pick it, then tap the result tile to open the review screen.
3. Check the chips. Each shows how many were found and how many are switched on.
4. Decide per category. Posting publicly? Cover everything. Sending to the courier? Leave the address uncovered.
5. Open a category to see individual detections and untick the ones that are false alarms.
6. Switch to Manual for anything it doesn’t know about: emails, usernames, account names, order IDs, a face in an avatar.
7. Save the copy.

What detection can’t do

• No emails or usernames.
• Addresses are the shakiest category: they come in so many formats that recognition is the least predictable.
• Tiny or low-contrast text can be missed. Zoom in.
• Names: if you switch names on, expect some false alarms, and note that names written in capital letters on cards may not be recognised at all. The brush handles those.

A quick checklist before you share

Look for: the status bar (carrier, time), notification banners, avatars, contact names, account IDs, order numbers, tracking links and QR codes. None of these are detected automatically.

The saved copy has its location data removed, though a screenshot rarely has any.

FAQ

Does it detect email addresses and usernames? No. PrivShot looks for phone numbers, ID numbers, bank card numbers, company credit codes, addresses and (optionally) names. Cover emails and usernames with the manual brush.

Is address detection reliable? It is the least predictable category because addresses come in many formats. Check the review screen and paint over anything missed.

Why can I switch categories per photo? Because the right choice depends on who receives it. Sending a delivery screenshot to the courier needs the address; posting it publicly doesn’t.

Are names blurred automatically? Names are detected but off by default because they trigger many false alarms. Turn them on for the photo when you need them.