MC1162958 - Viva Engage - Retirement of themes in user settings

Updated November 6, 2025: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience. 

Introduction

Microsoft is retiring the themes feature in user settings for Viva Engage. This change removes the ability for users to personalize their Viva Engage interface with custom themes. While usage of themes is low across Viva Engage tenants, this decision was made due to accessibility limitations in the current themes implementation, which conflict with future feature improvements. The retirement now helps pave the way for a new admin-led branding capability that is in development. This new feature will allow organizations to centrally configure visual elements such as logos, brand colors, and names. It is not yet available and will be communicated separately when ready.

Screenshot 1: Themes will no longer appear in Viva Engage settings

When this will happen:

This change will be rolled out early January 2026 (previously early November 2025) and completes by late January 2026 (previously mid-November 2025).

How this affects your organization:

Who is affected: All Viva Engage users accessing the service via web, desktop apps, Microsoft Teams, or Outlook.

What will happen:

• Users will no longer be able to set personal themes in Viva Engage.
• Existing user-defined themes will be removed, and users will see the default Viva Engage theme.
• This change does not affect mobile apps.

What you can do to prepare:

• No admin action is required. However, we recommend the following:
• Notify your users about the upcoming change to avoid confusion.
• Update internal documentation that references user-set themes in Viva Engage.

Compliance considerations:

No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.