Instagram's latest update lets you hide your terrible old selfies from the public

We've all been there: you're scrolling through your own Instagram feed, when you notice that photo. Why did you upload this? It's awful! But boy did it get a sweet amount of likes – there's no way you're outright deleting it.

Well, luckily for you, Instagram now offers a compromise for exactly this type of situation, where you want to hide a shot from the public, but still have it live somewhere in the depths of the internet. The new feature, which has been in limited testing for the past month, is called Archive, and essentially creates a special, private gallery where all your hidden photos appear.

The feature seems to have been designed to combat the problem of users deleting their old pictures and then immediately regretting that decision. And it's a far from surprising addition, really, considering Facebook (Instagram's parent company) has offered its users the option to hide posts from the public for years now.

Archiving a photo can be done by tapping on a photo's "..." menu, where other options such as Edit and Delete live. The option is rolling out together with version 10.21 of the app, available both in the iOS App Store and Google Play.