New Steam Chat Features Now Available For Everyone

Steam has updated with revised chat features. The revised functionality was announced last month and has been available in beta, but with the recent update it's become available to all users. It includes new grouping features, a Favorites tag, and more details on what your friends are up to.

The big Chat Update lets you set a handful of friends in a Favorites bar at the top of your list so you can always see what they're up to at a glance. Friends will also automatically be grouped by game and by party, making it easier to jump in and play with them. The friends menu will show more specific detail about what exactly your friends are doing in a game, too. Finally, group chats can be pulled together more easily.

The actual chat features more in-line functions as well. Video, images, and tweets are visible right inside the chat space, and you can drag new friends and drop them right into an existing group chat. If you like your group, you can save it for future reference. The persistent group chats make it easier to find your friends for a game, and voice will persist while chatting before, during, and after the game. This update is available now on the Steam client, but you can also try it out on the Web client.

Steam recently revealed its mid-year charts of the top sellers and most popular games, including games like Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5, and Kingdom Come Deliverance.