Unlike Facebook which lets you post privately or at least limit the audience of your posts, Instagram does not offer this level of privacy; all of your Instagram photos are visible to your followers. In the past, if you ever wanted to hide an existing photo on your profile, the only option was to delete it. Fortunately, a recent update to the app has been made to allow users to hide desired posts from their public profiles.
By hiding your photos, only you can see them and no one else. Your photos are still safe, and you can still access them at anytime you want.
As of this writing, this feature has been rolled out worldwide to all Android and iOS users. Make sure that your Instagram app is up-to-date before you follow the steps below. You can check for the latest app update in the Play Store if you own an Android phone or the App Store if you use the iPhone. The current version that lets you hide photos on Android phones is 10.26.0.
How to hide old Instagram photos without deleting them:
1. Open the official Instagram app on your phone.
2. Tap the user icon at the bottom of the screen to go to your own Instagram profile. If you have set up multiple accounts, the user icon will be replaced by your profile picture.
3. Select the photo that you want to hide from the public.
4. Tap the 3-dot button at top of the photo, and select Archive in the context menu. On the iPhone, the icon will be 3 horizontal dots.
5. The selected photo is now archived and hidden from your profile. However, you can still access it by tapping on the clock icon at the top right of the screen.
6. If you ever want to show archived photos on your feed again, select the photo, tap the 3-dot icon, and select the Show on Profile option.
