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The latest Steam Beta Client is out with Valve's revamped chat interface, along with some minor UI work as well.

Here's how the new interface and settings look, which is quite a lot cleaner and it does certainly look a lot more modern that's for sure. Steam's chat system was probably one of the oldest parts of Steam, so it's good to see a renewed focus on improving it.

The new favourites section is interesting, giving you a section to plonk people in you regularly chat with.

And here's how glorious the actual chat is, so I can send you all hilarious memes:

They updated the Group Chat feature as well, to be a lot more like Discord. You can add additional text and voice channels to them, including the rich image stuff like shown above. Group Chats can be given a name and avatar to save them as well, to pick it back up later.

Another benefit, is that it seems to finally keep some chat history too. I've closed and re-opened multiple chats, closed Steam itself and I still see what has been said.

There's additional handy features have been added too, like right clicking a game in your friends list and being able to go right to the store page:

However, it looks like this update has broken group chat for Steam Groups (like our Steam Group), as Steam will complain it can't find Steam running (as amusing as that is). In the shot below you will see that bug in action, plus the slightly different UI in the top right and bottom right.

To get around that issue, you can join the Group Chat from the Steam website, which then saves it into your Group Chat section of your friends list. I'm sure they will solve that weird issue soon. So the actual Group Chat interface now looks like this (very Discord-like):

You can join our very own GamingOnLinux Group Chat using this link, if you're bothered about it…

Another nice thing about the update, is that chats are finally tabbed together. You don't have many windows just for chat, all nicely under one roof now. To me, that's much nicer.

They've also completely rewritten voice chat from within Steam as well, with a WebRTC-based backend. It uses Opus encoding, encryption and the voice chat now goes through Steam directly, instead of being peer 2 peer. This should hopefully fix the issues where you couldn't connect to your friends to voice chat. It also now only requires a single click to voice chat with someone, although, that feature only works if your friend is also in the Steam Client Beta.

In addition, a feature I'm very happy about, is the new invisible mode. This allows you to show as offline, but still actually act is if you're online. For someone with as many people on their list as me from various tournaments and so in, it's a lot less hassle.

All of this works in the webstore too, not just the client. There's more I've likely missed, so do see the full details on their special update page here.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Beta, Steam, Valve
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14 Jun 12, 2018
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
You can already do these things in the Steam client:
- Add voice to group chat
- Chat history
- Tabbed chats
- Appear offline

I don't like that the voice chat won't be P2P anymore. I would rather not have the session go through a middle-man. Oh well. I don't use Steam voice chat anyway.
Xpander Jun 12, 2018
I like the direction overall, and nice features but there are major issues:

  • tab bar in the chat window needs resize option badly, way too big and waste of space

  • text input field and buttons on the bottom are way too big and need resize options

  • spaces between messages are way too big and waste a lot of space. Compact mode would be nice

  • no drag and drop for pictures, sending pictures from the button will open up super bad steam navigation window, where its almost impossible to find the file you wanted to upload

  • let us disable game groups from our friends list

  • give names to the windows so wmctrl can be used, atm all of them have just group name Steam but no actual window name
thats all atm from my fast testing.


Last edited by Xpander on 12 June 2018 at 9:15 pm UTC
Exidan Jun 12, 2018
finally they are doing this... I hope it encourage more people to use steam voice, I'm not a fan of discord
GustyGhost Jun 12, 2018
Ew... webRTC
MayeulC Jun 12, 2018
Quoting: GustyGhostEw... webRTC
What do you have against it? It's a nice set of protocols and APIs.

QuoteWebRTC-based backend. It uses Opus encoding, encryption and the voice chat now goes through Steam directly, instead of being peer 2 peer.
I usually read this as steam servers being used as Turn servers to allow clients to connect together (p2p) trough a NAT or firewall. They might implement a TURN fallback, though (like a proxy trough Steam servers), in case that fails. We'll, that's how WebRTC is designed anyway.

Weren't all chats in the same, tabbed window already? I sometimes found this "feature" annoying.

Great, another proprietary chat option, just what we needed! /s

I've been using steams chat myself, it was quite reliable. I like Matrix a lot, though, and I'm glad to see that there are some steam/Matrix bridges (though they will probably have to be updated).


Last edited by MayeulC on 13 June 2018 at 8:20 am UTC
UltraAltesBrot Jun 12, 2018
Quoting: toor
Quoting: nox
Quoting: toorI'm subscribed to the beta, but no update available
It didn't tell me that I had an update available. I had to just restart steam, which got it to update without telling be that there was an update :)
I've done that. And then unsubscribed from the beta and subscribed again. That didn't solve it.
You could try to manually check for an update while opted-in to the beta: Steam->Check for client updates in the top left. At least that did it for me.
Ehvis Jun 12, 2018
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: GuestRemoved the ability to go offline? Good job, Valve, oh how sometimes I hate you.

Still there for me in the "Steam" menu.
Smoke39 Jun 12, 2018
Quoting: MayeulCWeren't all hats in the same, tabbed window already? I found this "feature annoying".
Yes. You could also already disable that feature, if you found it annoying.
Doc Angelo Jun 12, 2018
Quoting: GuestRemoved the ability to go offline? Good job, Valve, oh how sometimes I hate you.

I think it doesn't have really changed. The actual "Offline Mode", where your client doesn't need to log in to Steam online is still there. The "chat offline" mode regarding chat is just called "Invisible" now. It does the same: You are logged in to Steam, but appear offline to friends. The difference is that you can directly see what friends are doing while you are "chat offline". Before, you had to click on "Friends" to see that.

The only thing they should do is provide a "Always connect as invisible when starting Steam", which was available before. But it remembers your last status, which is okay-ish, too.
warrengbrn Jun 13, 2018
Unfortunately I can't get this update on my system. I'm in the Beta and I've made steam check for updates but it says I'm up to date despite being on the older version. Worked on windows though..
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