diff --git a/res/themes/light-high-contrast/css/_light-high-contrast.pcss b/res/themes/light-high-contrast/css/_light-high-contrast.pcss
index 3d668a3f60..f82284089b 100644
--- a/res/themes/light-high-contrast/css/_light-high-contrast.pcss
+++ b/res/themes/light-high-contrast/css/_light-high-contrast.pcss
@@ -24,7 +24,10 @@ $input-darker-fg-color: $secondary-content;
 $resend-button-divider-color: $input-darker-bg-color;
 $icon-button-color: var(--cpd-color-icon-tertiary);
 $theme-button-bg-color: $quinary-content;
-$presence-offline: $quinary-content;
+/* not using a compound color here for now as we want to have the same color in
+   light and dark theme. Until we have a non-symetrical token for it, let's keep
+   it hardcoded to the following value */
+$presence-offline: #e3e8f0;
 $pinned-color: $tertiary-content;
 $button-secondary-bg-color: $accent-fg-color;
 $message-action-bar-fg-color: $primary-content;
diff --git a/res/themes/light/css/_light.pcss b/res/themes/light/css/_light.pcss
index f80787ec6c..d4d6fdddba 100644
--- a/res/themes/light/css/_light.pcss
+++ b/res/themes/light/css/_light.pcss
@@ -166,7 +166,10 @@ $rte-code-bg-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.04);
 /* Presence */
 /* ******************** */
 $presence-away: #d9b072;
-$presence-offline: $quinary-content;
+/* not using a compound color here for now as we want to have the same color in
+   light and dark theme. Until we have a non-symetrical token for it, let's keep
+   it hardcoded to the following value */
+$presence-offline: #e3e8f0;
 $presence-busy: $alert;
 /* ******************** */