Top 7 Ways to Fix Instagram Chat Themes Not Working on Android and iOS

Recently, Facebook pushed a big Instagram update that changed the way you use its messaging feature. Various features like emoji reactions, disappear mode, selfie stickers, and chat themes have been introduced. Unfortunately, some users cannot take advantage of the feature of chat themes on Instagram. If Instagram chat themes aren’t showing on your phone, let’s see how to fix that together.

The chat theme is different from the app theme where you can choose between dark or light mode. With chat themes, you have a wide variety of colors available, but only the chat background or the color of the bubbles change.

If Instagram chat themes aren’t working for you, the following solutions should help. Let’s start.

What to know about Instagram chat themes and bubble colors

• There are two things: themes and colors and gradients. Chat themes add background or wallpaper to the chat and also change the color of the bubbles in Instagram messages. However, choosing a different color only changes the color of the message bubble. For the sake of convenience, we will refer to both as topics in this article.
• The topic applies to a single discussion. You must manually change the theme or color of each discussion. So much granular customization.
• Although the other person will not be notified of the theme change, they will see the theme change notification in the chat when they open it.
• Every time you change the theme or bubble color, the change will also be reflected for the other user and not just for you.

Let’s move on to the solutions.

1. Follow the step by step method to change Instagram chat theme

The first solution would be to follow the correct steps to change the chat theme.

Step 1: Launch the Instagram app and tap the Messenger icon at the top. If you see the old private message icon, continue to the next solution.

2nd step: Tap the cat whose theme or color you want to change. In chat, tap the (i) icon at the top.

The color of the bubble changes when the keyboard is active and when it is not, as you can see in the following screenshots.

Point: If the theme’s colors look strange, switch between dark and light theme in Instagram settings> Theme.

2. Update the Instagram app

If you don’t see the theme setting in your Instagram posts, you need to update the Instagram app. Open Play Store (Android) and App Store (iOS) and search for Instagram. Tap Update. Once updated, open the Instagram app and you’ll be greeted with a notification that says something similar to Cross-app messaging or messaging overview has changed. Tap on it and follow the onscreen instructions to get the theme function.

If you don’t see any notifications, remove the Instagram app from the recent apps list or restart your phone after updating the app. Then open Instagram again and you will have the new functionality.

Once the messaging is updated, the Instagram Direct Messaging (DM) icon will be replaced with the Facebook Messenger logo. It is only when you have the new icon that you will be able to use themes in Instagram chats. Follow the steps mentioned above to change the chat theme.

3. Update the messaging function

If you ignored the cross-app messaging notification or didn’t receive one. Do not worry. In the Instagram app, go to your profile screen and tap on the three bar icon. Select Settings from there.

You will see the update mail at the top. Tap on it. A new screen showing various features of Instagram messages will open. Tap Update.

Pro tip: If you don’t see Update Mail, update your Instagram app first, in case you haven’t, and restart your phone.

You will be asked if you want to link your Instagram and Facebook accounts. If you do, you will be able to message your Messenger contacts from Instagram. Tap Continue if you want to link them, or tap Skip.

Go to the Instagram app home screen and you will see that the Messenger logo has replaced the old DM icon. Open the chat and you should be able to change the theme as per the instructions in Fix 1.

Point: Know what is silent on Instagram and how to use it.

4. Logout of all accounts

Then you should try to log out of your Instagram account. For many users, logging out has helped them get the discussion threads working. To sign out of the Instagram app, go to your profile screen and tap on the three bar icon. Select Settings.

Scroll down and tap xyz Sign Out, where xyz is your account name. Alternatively, if you have multiple accounts added on Instagram, tap Sign out of all accounts. Make sure you know the passwords for your accounts before pressing the logout button.

5. Clear cache and data (Android only)

You can try to clear cache and data of Instagram app to get chat themes on android phones. Clearing cache or data will not delete your Instagram photos or any other personal data on your phone. However, deleting the data will log you out of all of your Instagram accounts on the phone.

To clear Instagram app cache and data, go to Settings> Apps. Tap Instagram.

Pro tip: Find out in detail what is happening when erasing data from apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Contacts, etc.

6. Uninstall the Instagram app

If the solutions above don’t seem to help you, you should try uninstalling the Instagram app. To uninstall on Android, open Settings> Applications> Instagram. Press the Uninstall button. You can also touch and hold the Instagram app icon on the home screen and choose Uninstall. Also on iPhone, long press the Instagram app icon and select Remove app.

Note: Deleting the Instagram app will not delete your Instagram account and the photos on it. Know in detail what is going on by uninstalling Instagram app from phone.

7. Be patient

Instagram is slowly rolling out the chat theme feature. It may not be available in your country yet. Please be patient until you get the functionality. Remember that a good thing takes time.

Switch to the original classic Instagram theme

If you don’t like the themes or colors that Instagram offers, you cannot remove the feature. However, you can switch to the original look of Instagram posts by simply selecting Classic from the list of themes/colors.

Then:

Want to use Instagram posts like a pro? Check out 14 tips for Instagram chats from the following link.