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Valve has announced a long list of changes and improvements to the chat services of its digital distribution platform, Steam, and everyone with an account can try its beta version now.
The Steam chat updates are not hard to notice since most of the improvements bring a better-looking interface. On top of that, Valve has also added more ways to easily organize group chats and friends lists.
Now, the upper part of the friends list houses the Favorites panel, where users can simply drag the profiles of friends and existing chats so new alerts are easier to find. Steam friends are now grouped based on the games they play so users can join them with one click. The Games section within the friends' list will also show if fellow gamers are currently playing or just waiting for matchmaking.
Valve also revealed that a “modernized chat experience” comes with these updates. By modernized, Valve means that chat rooms are now made more interactive. Players can now insert images by pasting or uploading them. They can also start embedding YouTube videos and GIFs from various channels like Imgur, Giphy, Twitter, and Twitch.
There are also several updates added specifically for group chats. For one, players will no longer have to repeatedly join a group chat every time they log in on Steam. Valve has also added the @mention function so users can specifically address one member of a group chat.
Meanwhile, some group chats can be the start of a mini gaming community now that players can ask friends to join in it through a shareable link that can be forwarded in and out of Steam. To quickly find group chat updates, users will have notification settings specially available for group chats.
Valve has also improved the security aspect of the Steam chat. According to its announcement, voice chats are not supported by a “new WebRTC-based backend” and use “high-quality Opus encoding.”
“Voice chat traffic is now relayed through Steam servers for low-latency connectivity and for privacy so your IP is never disclosed to those you chat with,” Valve added.
To try the new Steam chat in beta, click the “Join the Beta” button on this link.
