FaceApp Face Merge Is Gone: 5 Ways to Blend Faces in 2026

Quick answer

FaceApp's face merge (sometimes called morph or "mix") let you take two faces and produce a single face that sat somewhere between them. It disappeared alongside the face swap and gender swap removals of 2023, and as of 2026 it is not in the app. There is no single replacement that does exactly what it did, but there are five realistic ways to get a merge or morph effect today: a generative swap into a reference photo (Reswap), dedicated morph apps, browser-based morph tools, baby face generators, and manual blending in a layer-based editor. Each one produces a different kind of result, and this article is honest about which is which.

What FaceApp face merge actually did

Before the 2023 cleanup, FaceApp shipped a cluster of two-face features. Face swap pasted one face onto another photo. Gender swap changed a single face. And in between sat face merge, the feature people searched for under names like "FaceApp mix," "FaceApp morph," or "combine two faces."

You picked two photos, usually yourself and a friend, a partner, or a celebrity. The app aligned the two faces, averaged their geometry and texture, and rendered a third face that looked like a plausible relative of both. You could sometimes nudge the weighting toward one side or the other. Results were a little soft, occasionally uncanny, and very shareable.

Technically, this was a morph, not a swap. A swap keeps one person's face and moves it somewhere else. A morph creates a new face that belongs to nobody. That distinction matters for choosing a replacement, because most apps today are built for one or the other, not both.

Why it went away

FaceApp never published a feature-by-feature explanation. The face swap removal in May 2023 came with a short statement about "a shift in development strategy," and the merge and morph effects left in the same wave. We covered the likely reasons in detail in why FaceApp removed face swap: rising deepfake scrutiny, the lingering 2019 privacy controversy, and the fact that Snapchat lenses and a dozen newer AI apps had commoditized the whole category.

Merge was collateral damage. It shared the two-face alignment pipeline with swap, attracted the same "is this a deepfake tool" questions, and was not the feature that paid the bills. Cutting everything that involved a second person's face was the clean way to lower the app's profile.

The hedge is worth repeating. FaceApp updates regularly, and features come and go. As of this writing in 2026, there is no merge, morph, or mix option in the app, and the company has given no signal that one is coming back. If you are searching for it, you are looking for something that is not there.

The five ways to blend two faces today

1. Generative swap into a reference photo (Reswap)

Reswap is a generative AI app for iPhone, and it is worth being precise about what it does, because it is not a 50/50 blend. You upload a few selfies once, then pick any photo from your camera roll. The app generates a new version of that photo with your face in it, rebuilt by a diffusion model so that lighting, skin, and hair edges all match the scene. It is a swap, not a morph. Your face stays your face.

So why list it first? Because many people who search for "face merge" actually want the swap result. "Put me in this photo with my friend," "what would I look like with her hair and outfit," "me in that movie still" are all swap jobs that people describe as merging. For that, a generative swap produces a far more convincing image than the old FaceApp merge ever did, because nothing is averaged.

If you genuinely want a face that is halfway between two people, Reswap is the wrong tool and you should go to option 2, 3, or 4. We would rather say that plainly than sell you a feature that does not exist. For the curious, how AI photo swap works explains the generative pipeline in more depth.

Reswap facts: requires iOS 18 or later, selfies are uploaded once, face validation runs on-device before anything is sent, the free tier includes 3 swaps per month with no watermark, and Reswap Plus starts at $4.99 per week. It is on the App Store.

2. Dedicated morph apps

This is the closest thing to the original feature. Morph apps take two faces, align landmarks (eyes, nose, mouth corners, jaw), and interpolate between them. Most produce either a single blended still or a short animation that slides from face A to face B. Search "face morph" on the App Store and read recent reviews rather than trusting the top result, because the category churns and quality swings between updates.

What to expect: a true 50/50 face is doable, and many apps let you drag a slider to weight the result. Hair and background tend to ghost or smear, because the alignment only covers the face. Resolution is usually modest. Watermarks are common on free tiers. Upload clear, front-facing photos with similar lighting, exactly as you would for a baby face generator, and you will get a cleaner result.

3. Web-based morph tools

If you do not want to install anything, browser morph tools do the same landmark interpolation from a web page. Some are completely free, some are research demos, some are front-ends for a paid API. They are convenient for a one-off and run on any device.

Two cautions. First, quality is typically a notch below the better mobile apps, and the free ones rarely offer fine control over the blend point. Second, you are uploading two clear face photos to a site you probably found five minutes ago. Read the retention policy. If there is none, close the tab. The second face usually belongs to someone who did not agree to be uploaded, so ask them.

4. Baby face generators

A surprising number of "merge two faces" searches are really "what would our baby look like." If that is you, the dedicated baby generators do a specific flavor of morph: they take two parent photos, blend the features, and render the result as an infant or child rather than an adult. We reviewed the main options and their limits in our AI baby face generator guide.

The output is a genuine blend of two faces, which is what the old FaceApp merge did, just aged down. Treat it as entertainment. No photo-based tool knows anything about genetics, and the results vary wildly between services.

5. Manual blending in a layer editor

The old-school route still works and gives you the most control. In Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Pixelmator, or any editor with layers and masks:

1.Open photo A as the base layer and photo B on top.

2.Scale and rotate B so the eyes and mouth line up with A. Lower B's opacity temporarily to see both.

3.Add a layer mask to B and paint with a soft black brush over the areas you want from A. Paint white to bring B back.

4.Set B's opacity to around 50 percent for an even blend, or higher to favor one face.

5.Use Liquify or a warp tool to nudge the jaw and nose toward a middle shape.

6.Flatten, then match color and grain so the two sources do not look stitched.

It takes fifteen to thirty minutes the first time. Nothing leaves your machine, and you decide exactly which features to keep.

Comparison table

Method	Result type	True 50/50 blend	Realism	Effort	Cost
Reswap (generative swap)	Your face in any photo	No	High	Low	Free tier, Plus from $4.99/week
Dedicated morph app	Averaged face or morph video	Yes	Medium	Low	Free with watermark, paid to remove
Web morph tool	Averaged face	Yes	Low to medium	Low	Mostly free
Baby face generator	Blended child face	Yes, aged down	Medium	Low	Free and paid tiers
Manual layer blending	Whatever you build	Yes	Depends on you	High	Software you already own

Step by step: the swap route with Reswap

If the effect you want is "me inside that photo," here is the full flow.

1.Install Reswap from the App Store. It needs iOS 18 or later.

2.On first launch, take or pick a few clear selfies. Front-facing, even light, no sunglasses. The app validates the faces on-device before anything is uploaded, so you will know immediately if a selfie is unusable.

3.Pick the reference photo: your friend's shot, a couple photo, a fashion editorial, anything from your camera roll.

4.Tap to generate. The app produces a new image with your face rendered into the scene.

5.If the lighting or angle of your reference photo is extreme, try another reference rather than re-running the same one.

6.Save or share. There is no watermark on the free tier.

You can run three swaps per month for free, which is enough to find out whether the generative result is what you had in mind before paying for Plus.

Which method should you pick?

•You want a face that is literally half you, half someone else: a dedicated morph app, or a web tool if it is a one-off.

•You want to see what your child might look like: a baby face generator.

•You want a photo where you are standing in for someone, or you want yourself in a scene that already exists: Reswap.

•You want full control and zero uploads: manual blending.

If you came here from a broader "what replaced FaceApp" search, our roundup of FaceApp alternatives for face swap in 2026 covers the rest of the category.

FAQ

Does FaceApp still have face merge in 2026? No. Merge, morph, and mix effects were removed around the same time as face swap and gender swap in 2023, and as of 2026 they have not returned.

Is Reswap a face merge app? Not in the strict sense. Reswap generates a new photo with your face in a scene you choose. It does not average two faces into one. If you want a true blend, use a morph app or a baby generator instead.

What is the difference between a face swap and a face morph? A swap moves one person's face into another photo and keeps it recognizable. A morph creates a new face by interpolating between two people, so the result belongs to neither of them.

Can I blend two faces for free? Yes. Web morph tools and several mobile morph apps have free tiers, usually with a watermark. Reswap's free tier gives you 3 generative swaps per month with no watermark.

Are morph apps safe to use? They are as safe as their privacy policy. Check how long photos are retained and whether they are used for training. Remember that the second face is usually someone else's, and that person did not read the policy.