Steam Support
Steam Friends & Chat
You can access your Friends & Chat interface in the lower right corner of your Steam Client or through your favorite web browser.

Through your Friends & Chat interface you can manage your friends, send IMs, organize voice & group chats and control your online presence.

Most of these features are designed to be intuitive and easy to use, so don't be afraid to drag and drop and right-click. If you have trouble with anything, check out the information in this FAQ. If you are still unable to get something working right, don't hesitate to reach out to Steam Support.


Profile & Online Presence

In the top left corner of your Friends & Chat interface, you'll see your familiar Steam avatar. You can access your Steam profile directly from this link.

Next to your avatar there is a dropdown menu. From here, you can set your online presence:

  • Online - The default status. Your friends will see when you are online and playing a game will show you as in-game.
  • Away - manually let your friends know that you are not available. Your online status will automatically switch to snooze once you have been inactive for a long period of time.
  • Invisible - This status will show you as offline to other players. You’ll still be able to view your friends list, send and receive messages and otherwise participate in the community. However, other players won't see you as online.
  • Offline - This status will actually sign you out of the Steam community. In addition to the affects of invisible status, you wont be able to communicate with friends and Steam features that depend on being online will not work.
  • Do Not Disturb - This setting simply controls whether or not you will receive notifications from chat, invites and other requests.



Settings & Notifications

The gear next to your profile name will take you to your Friends & Chat settings. From here, you can access a variety of settings relative to all aspects of your Friends & Chat interface.



Friends List

Your friends list allows you to quickly access and manage your friends on Steam. You can access your friends list directly from your favorite web browser or from the Friends & Chat interface in the lower right corner of your Steam client.


Adding friends

The friend plus icon at the top of your friends list will take you to your friend management page. From here you can add friends through a variety of methods below:

  • Search the community for other players.
  • Create and share an invite link with other players.
  • Navigate directly to another profile and select 'add friend' on the right side.


While every player on Steam can receive friend invites, limited user accounts cannot send friend invites.

Managing invites

If you have any outstanding friend invites, you will see another friend icon at the top of your friends list showing the number of outstanding requests. Clicking on this icon will allow you to accept, block or ignore friends. You can also visit your friend management page for more comprehensive management tools.

Adding favorites

You can drag & drop any of your friends to the top of your Friends & Chat interface to add them to your favorites list.


Group Chat

Group chats allow you to open chat rooms with more than one friend. Once you've created a group chat, you can save it for future use, along with access to special settings relative to that group.


How to create a group chat

  • From the lower left side of your Friends & Chat interface, you can click the plus icon next to your group chats. This will allow you to create a brand new group chat along with invites to your selected Steam friends.
  • If you already have a chat open with one of your friends, you can drag and drop other friends directly on to the open chat window to create a group. You can continue dragging and dropping friends into this chat to invite them.
  • If you have a group chat open, you can open the invite window by selecting the plus icon in the upper right.




Saving a group chat

Once you've added some friends to the group chat, you'll want to save it for future access. With the group chat window open, select the gear icon in the upper right corner of the chat window. From here, you'll be able to set a name and avatar and permanently save the group.



Settings & Notifications

Once you've saved and setup your group, you can access specific group settings that will let you customize your group and its permissions. Open your group chat and select the gear in the upper right.

Adding favorites

You can drag & drop any of your groups to the top of your Friends & Chat interface to add them to your favorites list.

Voice Chat

If you're able to access your Steam Friends and Chat UI, starting a voice chat is one click away.


How to start a voice chat

  • Friends - Starting a voice chat with a friend is as simple as right-clicking their name in your friends list and selecting 'Start Voice Chat'. You can also start a voice chat in the lower right corner of any open chat window by clicking the microphone icon.
  • Groups - For voice chats with your favorite group, first open the group chat window by clicking the group on the left panel of your Friends List. From here, you'll need to create a new voice chat channel by clicking 'Add Voice Channel' on the left panel. Once you've created a voice channel, other players in your group can freely join. It will also be saved for the future.

How to access your voice settings

The gear next to your profile name at the top of your friends list will take you to your Friends & Chat settings. From here, you can access the Voice tab to configure your devices along with other options.

Troubleshooting

Steam voice chat is designed to require minimal setup provided your default system devices are already working properly. If you are experiencing an issue, check out the support article below for detailed info:

Voice Chat Connection and Quality Issues

Need help with Steam?
Use the Steam help wizard to narrow down your topic and get the help you need.
Help Me With My Issue
Community Help
Post or search in Steam Discussions for an answer to your question.
Visit Steam Discussions