Auto light/dark theme possible?

[andreaippo]

As per question, would this be possible?

The UI settings don't show an "auto" option, but I wonder if a flag could be passed to set the proper value depending on the current system theme.

I'm using it as flatpak.

Thanks! :)

[elhennig]

I would also appreciate such an option if possible.

[elhennig]

At least for me it is not working with KDE/Plasma

Operating System: openSUSE Leap 15.5
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.10
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.114.0
Qt Version: 5.15.12
Graphics Platform: X11

I use koi to switch the plasma style, color scheme and gtk theme automatically.
BTW, this also does not work for me in Thunderbird and Firefox using the addon "automaticDark - Time-Based Theme Changer"

[benterova]

Hey there!

It works with stock GNOME and KDE/Plasma (what I use on my desktop) when switching between Breeze and Breeze Dark. Since you mentioned that Thunderbird and Firefox are also not respecting the theme changes, this leads me to believe this has to be related to Koi switching themes incorrectly.

If you'd like to test this, try switching to either Breeze/Breeze dark with the command line option set and see if you have the same result.

As for a more technical perspective, all we do is wait for Electron to receive the theme changed signal that comes from your DE, and then we send a command to the web interface to change to the respective theme.

Happy to help troubleshoot more as we get more info!

[elhennig]

Is there anything I need to set in the teams client? Could you tell me what is the command to change the themes in the CLI?

[benterova]

So long as you have --followSystemTheme set in the command line, it should be able to follow your DE's theme automatically. I'm using the Flatpak version, and I used Menu Editor to add --followSystemTheme to the command line arguments of the application. I've also confirmed this works with the AppImage and native version of the applications as well. I use GNOME on my laptop and it works there as well with the stock DE.

Here's a simple example of the configuration, it should be all you need to get the themes switching automatically.

teams-followtheme.webm

[elhennig]

Plasma Switches work fine for me, Thunderbird and Firefox do not, the same is true for the KDE4 applications I still and the Teams client.
I guess the root cause is that I still use the kdebase4 package, as I have not found any tool to migrate the kde4 settings to plasma5, yet. Sorry for the confusion, I caused

[andreaippo]

Hi all,
I have teams-for-linux 1.4.10 installed as flatpak (at system level), but although I added the flag to the launch command, it still stays with the white theme although I choose the Breeze Dark one.

What am I missing?

My .desktop file contains the following:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Teams for Linux
Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=teams-for-linux --file-forwarding com.github.IsmaelMartinez.teams_for_linux --followSystemTheme @@u %U @@
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=com.github.IsmaelMartinez.teams_for_linux
StartupWMClass=teams-for-linux
Comment=Unofficial Microsoft Teams client for Linux using Electron. It uses the Web App and wraps it as a standalone application using Electron.
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/msteams;
Categories=Chat;Network;Office;
X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.27
X-Flatpak-RenamedFrom=teams-for-linux.desktop;
X-Flatpak=com.github.IsmaelMartinez.teams_for_linux

Thanks!

[benterova]

Yeah, this likely means that you're either not running the .desktop file you're intending to, or the command line argument isn't otherwise being attached.

I'd try editing the desktop entry with a GUI application such as Menu Editor or do some more digging to ensure that you're running the correct .desktop file.

[andreaippo]

I have previously deleted the Teams entry from Menu Editor while doing a major clean up of my install.
Hoping that re-installing the flatpak from Discover would bring it back, but it didn't.
So while now I have the .desktop file here /var/lib/flatpak/app/com.github.IsmaelMartinez.teams_for_linux/current/active/export/share/applications/, there is no entry known to Menu Editor

EDIT: so I did this and the entry is present again:
Edit → Restore to System Menu

[andreaippo]

Now I did the change via Menu Editor, but the app won't launch anymore, the icon bounces around and nothing happens:

I did the highlighted change in both the Office and Internet categories

[andreaippo]

as soon as I remove that argument and save, the desktop entry launches the app again (although no theme switching happens, of course)

[andreaippo]

Ok final (I hope) update. It finally worked.
I used Menu Editor, but placed the argument near the end, as shown in the screen recorded posted by you before in this thread.
I'm sure I had tried that as well at some point, but it was not effective. Maybe my install was borked somehow, dunno.

The point is, now it works.

Thanks! :)

[andreaippo]

Now, a question before we can mark this as closed, I guess:

will this --followSystemTheme become included by default as a startup argument, so that users don't have to modify the .desktop entry manually?

[benterova]

I'd love this to be the case. When I made this I didn't want to introduce it in a way that would interrupt people's existing expectations for light/dark as it might also override the CSS rules that the other configuration options let you set.

It's super easy to switch this to being true by default, if there's enough buy in I'll make a PR to have it be enabled by default.

[jijojosephk]

We don't recommend having it in .desktop file. Because every new update will overwrite the same. That's why we suggest config.json.

Read: https://github.com/IsmaelMartinez/teams-for-linux/blob/develop/app/config/README.md

[andreaippo]

Follow-up question: would it be possible to change the tray icon at runtime, by making appIconType reflect the same behavior as followSystemTheme?

I guess that if followSystemTheme is set and dark theme is detected, appIconType should be the one for the dark theme (i.e. I guess the white one), and viceversa.

Thanks :)

[jijojosephk]

currently they're separate settings. If you need the tray icon updated when theme changes, we would require to do some code changes.

If you have a matrix client, you can join the chat group of teams-for-linux here: https://matrix.to/#/#teams-for-linux_community:gitter.im