Instagram is rolling out a new "archive" feature that will let the users hide any of their posts from everyone else but keeping them safe to look at in private and/or restore to visibility.

When Instagrammers do not get the traction they want from their posts, they delete the content which also deprives Instagram of monetisable content. The company is now launching this feature "to keep you locked into the service", Tech Crunch reported on Monday.

"We are always testing new ways to improve the Instagram experience," a company spokesperson said.

He said the "archive" option creates a private space for personal viewing of old posts. 

The company will expand the availability of the archive option over the next few months as it continues to iterate on it.

To use the "archive" option (if you have access), a user needs to tap the "…" button on any of his/her posts and select to archive it.

On top right corner of the profile, he/she will see the encircled clock icon, which opens archive where only the user can see posts which were archived. From there these posts can be restored.

However, while Instagram rolls out new features to keep you longer on its app, according to a recent report by the UK’s Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), social media is contributing to mental-health problems of young people and Instagram has the greatest negative effect

The report surveyed nearly 1500 people between the age of 14-24 and asked them about their feelings of anxiety, connection to a community, sense of identity, sleep, body image, and more and combined it with previously published research on social media’s impact on health.

While YouTube was the only one that had a net-positive effect among the respondents, other social networks came back with a net-negative effect with Twitter being the least negative, followed by Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram.

With inputs from IANS