Valve have restored the fully offline mode for the new Steam Chat system and more

Even though I don't use Steam anymore, I consider this a positive change however small.

Valve, where when mistakes are made, fixes shortly follow.

To make it even better, they added the option to not sign into the friends system when the Steam Client loads up.

That's the one feature I was missing. Now I don't have to remember to make myself invisible before I quit the client. Good on them to listen to customer feedback.

Added 'Offline' as a selectable status. This will log the user's client out of Steam Friends and the user will appear as offline to their friends.

Seems to be the same as with the old chat. You're still able to receive and write messages, but the notifications are different.

What I found kinda weird is that there are now two settings for the microphone. One section is in the old location, in Steam Menu > Settings. The other is if you click on the gear icon in the friends window. I don't see a reason for keeping those two settings separate.


Last edited by Doc Angelo on 29 Jul 2018 at 7:33 am UTC

Unfortunately I haven’t found an option to not sort friends by the game they are playing, and not display so prominently (and twice) that game…

I really liked with the old friends system that I could put some people into a "GAME XY" category, and they would only turn up there, and not in the standard friends list. That was a nice way of putting people you only know through this particular game into a "folder" without them wasting space in the friends list.

I understand that "Favorites" is kinda the solution for that, but I'm not yet sure if I like that.

Added 'Offline' as a selectable status. This will log the user's client out of Steam Friends and the user will appear as offline to their friends.

Seems to be the same as with the old chat. You're still able to receive and write messages, but the notifications are different.

I tested this briefly: Invisible status does what you describe, and if you're offline, you need to sign in to actually send or receive messages, or even see your friends list. Just like before.

What I found kinda weird is that there are now two settings for the microphone. One section is in the old location, in Steam Menu > Settings. The other is if you click on the gear icon in the friends window. I don't see a reason for keeping those two settings separate.

It's the beta. Unfinished features sometimes pop up, but usually they get cleaned up before they end up in stable.

It's the beta. Unfinished features sometimes pop up, but usually they get cleaned up before they end up in stable.

The reduntant (?) audio settings are also in the stable release. I don't have the beta channel active.

I tested this briefly: Invisible status does what you describe, and if you're offline, you need to sign in to actually send or receive messages, or even see your friends list. Just like before.

Good to hear that they've properly named offline mode for the chat. Not sure for what it's good, but now it works as expected. Before (the old chat) you could certainly receive and write messages. I remember my friends asking me how it is possible that I can write messages while being offline. The answer: You wasn't actually offline in the old chat. It was just a cosmetic thing. They shouldn't have called it offline before.


Last edited by Doc Angelo on 29 Jul 2018 at 9:38 am UTC

It's the beta. Unfinished features sometimes pop up, but usually they get cleaned up before they end up in stable.

The reduntant (?) audio settings are also in the stable release. I don't have the beta channel active.

Oh, okay. Maybe they didn't want to just remove the old way of configuring the mic before users get used to the new one. Makes sense as long as the new chat can be disabled with a command line switch.

Oh, okay. Maybe they didn't want to just remove the old way of configuring the mic before users get used to the new one. Makes sense as long as the new chat can be disabled with a command line switch.

Seems like some settings are synced across both sections, while others are exclusive to either one. The "microphone volume" from the "ingame voice" settings affects the "voice chat" volume, too, but it isn't displayed there. It's a mess honestly. The polish is not very high on this stable release. The main Steam window has shadows, the chat window not. Both windows don't snap at each other anymore. The old main view and the new chat view are kinda like two versions active at the same time.

But maybe that's just in line with the PC gaming spirit: Not very polished, but always the newest stuff. :D


Last edited by Doc Angelo on 29 Jul 2018 at 10:09 am UTC

Do you think it will replace Discord?

I personally have never really used Discord, so I can't judge that.

Do you think it will replace Discord?

I personally have never really used Discord, so I can't judge that.

I highly doubt that, because it's tied to a single platform.

I really liked with the old friends system that I could put some people into a "GAME XY" category, and they would only turn up there, and not in the standard friends list. That was a nice way of putting people you only know through this particular game into a "folder" without them wasting space in the friends list.

I understand that "Favorites" is kinda the solution for that, but I'm not yet sure if I like that.

Answering to myself here: This is possible. The setting is called "Hide categorized friends in Online/Offline Friends".

Do you think it will replace Discord?

I personally have never really used Discord, so I can't judge that.

No , since Discord literally replaced TeamSpeak for me most people firstly. These stuff are mostly secondary things for people.

For an anti-social person who only added some friends by accident and is now bothered with being notified about this and that, this is a welcome news! :D