In conjunction with Ramadan, Instagram is launching their first Ramadan campaign called #MonthOfGood. A new camera effect “Lantern” is launched to encourage users to share their celebrations and acts of kindness in a fun and creative way. It could be as simple as posting positive comments on friends’ or colleagues’ account, thanking friends and family for iftar or Zohor or volunteering within your community and sharing it as an example to others to be kind and do good.

The Lantern camera effect has a subtle bokeh and crescent shapes inspired by ornamental Arabesque design style. The effect are multi-layered and people can tap the screen to move to a traditional crescent design effect and then have the option of English or Arabic Ramadan greetings. Last year between 16 May 2018 and 14 June 2018, the first and last days of Ramadan there were over 15m feed posts about Ramadan. In countries where Ramadan is a key celebration, words associated with kindness and good deeds, such as charity, donating and generosity increased significantly during the holy month in 2018. In Malaysia, posts containing the word ‘generosity’ increased over 30%.

This year, building on this behaviour, Instagram is encouraging the community to share moments of kindness and celebration, using the new camera effect and tagging their content with the #MonthOfGood. Kindness does not have to be a grand gesture. In fact, small and unexpected acts can have a huge impact on someone’s day. We can’t wait to be inspired by the acts of kindness – big and small – shared by the Instagram community this Ramadan.