New Steam Client Beta Introduces Overhauled In-Game Overlay

Steam has released a new desktop client beta update which brings in several new features and improvements to the desktop experience including an overhauled in-game overlay.

New In-Game Overlay

With this update, Steam has made various small changes to improve the user experience of the Steam client which has led to an overhaul of the In-Game overlay. The overlay has been rebuilt from the ground up to add new utilities as well as allow for more customizability with the new toolbar giving you access to anything you need in the middle of the game with friends chat, achievements progress, guides, discussions, a browser, and more. All of these windows can be personalised to your liking and can even be pinned to be viewed on the top of the game with adjustable opacity levels.

New and Updated Overlay Apps

Steam has introduced an updated Game Overview and the new Notes app. The Game Overview app allows you to see what’s going on with your game since you last played it as well as your friends playing, your achievements and the community guides and other content. The notes app is fairly self-explanatory, it allows you to write notes which can be saved per game.

Other UI Updates

Away from the In-Game overlay Steam has updated some features of the main Steam client including the notifications and the screenshot manager. The notifications, which I don’t think I ever look at, have been made richer and more useful. The green button will only light up when there is truly something new for you and the tray view has been limited to new notifications. Elsewhere the screenshot manager has been completely refreshed and is now much more responsive and customisable. Users can choose from large or small thumbnails as well as the ability to filter by recent screenshots rather than by game.

Where Can I Learn More?

Improvements to the Steam Client are always welcome and if you are interested in the full update notes you can read the blog post from Steam here.