Dark Theme no longer available for Calls and Meetings in Classic theme

Good day @Scott Harris/USA50, and I appreciate the clear explanation of your concern.  

I truly understand how important consistent visual cues like the Classic theme and dark call window can be for your workflow, especially when you rely on them for quick identification. 

Just to gently clarify before we go any further, this is a user‑to‑user support forum. I don’t have the ability to access or investigate individual accounts because this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, do not have access to internal systems or the ability to directly take action on Microsoft product features. However, I truly hope I can help review your situation, offer some guidance, and support you in finding the right next steps as best as possible.   

I tested the behavior on Teams for macOS and observed the same result you described. When the main theme is set to Classic, the option “Always use dark theme for calls and meetings” appears greyed out and cannot be selected. Currently, I wasn't able to find any official Microsoft documentation confirming whether this is an intended design change or an unintended issue. 

That said, I did identify a behavior that may help as a workaround in your scenario: 

• Use Light theme in Teams and enable dark calls manually 

Open Microsoft Teams > Click the three dots (⋯) in the top-right corner > Go to Settings.

Select Appearance > Set the Theme to Light. 

Enable the option “Always use dark theme for calls and meetings”. 

Calls and meetings will appear in dark mode, while the main Teams interface remains light. 

Additionally, you can set the Light theme in your device settings and then set the Teams theme to “Follow operating system theme” and it will work normally, but if you choose Dark, Classic or High Contrast, the option will be disabled and dark mode won’t apply during calls or meetings. 

Since you mentioned that this feature previously worked while using the Classic theme, and there is no official communication confirming a change, it is not yet possible to determine whether this is by design or a regression. 

• For this reason, I recommend reaching out to your IT administrator to create a support ticket via Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Support > Help & Support for further investigation. In case you do not know who is your IT admin, kindly refer to this article: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support  

A technical support engineer can perform a remote session to investigate the situation, verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis.    

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any questions or need further support, please don’t hesitate to reach out at any time. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

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Dear Scott,

Thank you so much for your kind words, I really appreciate your understanding and willingness to follow up on this.

I completely agree with you, and I genuinely hope this behavior will be reviewed and clarified by the product team soon, whether it is identified as a bug or a change in design. Your feedback and engagement are very valuable in bringing more visibility to this.

In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to share any updates if you notice changes on your end, or if you come across additional details that could help with the investigation.

Thanks again for your cooperation and patience, it truly means a lot.

Dear @Scott Harris/USA50, 

Thank you for your detailed explanation. I truly understand your concern and definitely see how losing that visual cue would significantly disrupt your workflow. 

From my testing on both Windows and macOS devices, I noticed that on versions (26120.3106.4722.3411.) of Teams that have not been updated, the option “Always use dark theme for calls and meetings” can still be selected when using the Classic theme. However, after updating the Teams app, the option becomes greyed out. This suggests that the behavior may be related to a recent update in Teams. 

At this time, I don’t see any related advisories or incidents listed in the Microsoft 365 admin center. However, this does not necessarily mean the issue does not exist, as it may currently affect only a small number of users and hasn‘t yet been widely reported.     

Given the circumstances, I sincerely recommend reaching out to your IT administrator to create a support ticket via Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Support > Help & Support for further investigation. This will allow the engineering team to review the scenario in more detail and determine whether this is expected behavior or something that requires further investigation. 

I would like to clarify that my role is limited to sharing public documentation, testing observations, and general troubleshooting guidance. I don't have access to internal diagnostic tools, engineering backlogs, build-level investigations or the ability to escalate the issue. Because of that, I am not able to confirm whether this behavior is linked to a known product issue or bug.     

Also, as many members of the community may not yet be aware of this behavior. Sharing or highlighting this response can help bring greater visibility to the issue, making it easier for others who are experiencing similar challenges to find relevant information and support.      

If there are any updates or new information available, I will be happy to share them with you.