The Face Invaders app icon: a green alien against a purple sky

Face Invaders: Defend Earth

Face Invaders: Defend Earth is a free arcade brick-breaker for iPhone and iPad in which the aliens wear faces from your own photos. The face detection runs on your device, the photos are never uploaded, and there are no ads.

Download on the App Store

Free · iPhone & iPad · No ads

A face picked in the Invader Studio, cropped to a circle
A face you pick
The same face on an alien invader, with antennae and a pink body
Becomes an invader

Watch it play

Watch 15 seconds of gameplay

The whole idea

Put your friends' faces on the aliens

Pick a photo and the game finds the faces in it, then puts them on the invaders. Give each one a name and it gets announced as a boss when it turns up.

Detection runs entirely on your device, and the game never asks for access to your photo library — it only ever sees the pictures you hand it.

How to add faces, step by step Where your photos go

The Invader Studio: an alien wearing a picked face, with a row of picked faces below it

Have a look

Screenshots from the game

A level in play: rows of aliens wearing picked faces above the player's ship A galaxy boss wearing a picked face, with its health and shield bars draining The galaxy map, with cleared levels marked by earned stars The Shipyard, showing ship hulls for sale with their gem prices The mini games hub, listing Whack-an-Alien, Gold Rain and Meteor Dash The medals room, showing galaxy medals earned from star ratings

Six shots — drag, scroll or tab to this row and use the arrow keys.

The Shipyard

Eleven ship hulls to fly

Cosmetic only — every hull handles exactly the same. Pick the one you like looking at.

The Red Baron hull, a cartoon starfighter seen from above RED BARON
The Sky Cadet hull, a cartoon starfighter seen from above SKY CADET
The Honey Guard hull, a cartoon starfighter seen from above HONEY GUARD
The Jade Wasp hull, a cartoon starfighter seen from above JADE WASP
The Frost Runner hull, a cartoon starfighter seen from above FROST RUNNER
The Neon Drifter hull, a cartoon starfighter seen from above NEON DRIFTER
The Solar Falcon hull, a cartoon starfighter seen from above SOLAR FALCON
The Violet Hornet hull, a cartoon starfighter seen from above VIOLET HORNET
The Magma Ram hull, a cartoon starfighter seen from above MAGMA RAM
The Phantom hull, a cartoon starfighter seen from above PHANTOM
The Star Admiral hull, a cartoon starfighter seen from above STAR ADMIRAL
The Armory upgrade tracks, each priced in gems that are earned by playing

The Armory

Upgrade your way through, without paying

Eight tracks, all bought with gems you earn by playing. Nothing is locked behind a purchase.

Guns

Faster volleys, more bolts.

Energy Ball

Harder hits and fireballs.

Hull

A wider ship, easier saves.

Earth Shield

The planet survives more hits.

Luck & Magnet

More drops, and gems fly to you.

Cannon & Auto-Fire

A centre gun, and hands-free bursts.

Twelve galaxies

Twelve bosses, and each one wears a face you chose

Every galaxy ends with its own boss. If you gave that face a name, the game announces it before the fight.

The galaxy 8 boss in a fight, wearing a face picked from the player's photos

The galaxy 8 boss, wearing a picked face.

The galaxy 1 boss, its face left blank until you add one 1
The galaxy 2 boss, its face left blank until you add one 2
The galaxy 3 boss, its face left blank until you add one 3
The galaxy 4 boss, its face left blank until you add one 4
The galaxy 5 boss, its face left blank until you add one 5
The galaxy 6 boss, its face left blank until you add one 6
The galaxy 7 boss, its face left blank until you add one 7
The galaxy 8 boss, its face left blank until you add one 8
The galaxy 9 boss, its face left blank until you add one 9
The galaxy 10 boss, its face left blank until you add one 10
The galaxy 11 boss, its face left blank until you add one 11
The galaxy 12 boss, its face left blank until you add one 12

All twelve, as they ship: different bodies, blank faces. The face is the part you fill in.

And there's more

Beyond the campaign

Seasonal events

Themed mini-campaigns that come and go through the year — beach, back to school, autumn harvest.

Mini games

Whack-an-Alien, Gold Rain and Meteor Dash, for when you want a quick round.

Medals

Galaxy medals earned from your star ratings, plus specials for the big moments.

120 levels

Twelve galaxies, three stars each, and a boss waiting at the end of every one.

Privacy

Your photos never leave your phone

The game has no photo-library permission to ask for: you hand it individual pictures through the system picker, and it sees nothing else. Face detection then runs on your device. There are no accounts, no ads and no third-party tracking — only anonymous, lumped-together gameplay stats that can't be traced back to you.

Exactly where your photos go The full privacy policy