Steam Chat

Firstly, I can’t understand why you would release this, instead of give the steam app an overhaul with this rolled up in it. Having 2 apps now, I don’t like it. Also, why are steam chats so... inconsistent? Start a chat in game with someone on the PC, even on the new iOS steam chat, no conversation. Then, there’s voice. Many of us have been using discord for voice, and using it happily on our phones and iPads. I would honestly love to ditch it and use steam more or less exclusively, but until it has mobile support, no can do. Now I realize steam is more of a sales platform, and for that I can’t be too harsh on the company itself for providing inferior inter connectivity tools, but the voice and text chat and overall social support on mobile is bare bones and clunky as it is.

So where do I start with this app? When this app first came out years ago, I was happy I could at least send photos via Steam Mobile in a way. However, the app would constantly display the wrong time since last online for friends, and wouldn’t update that correctly (friend could be offline for 2 hours, but “Last Seen” would display over a day ago for example). Not a big, big issue, just a bit misleading, however it didn’t stop there. This app has gotten nothing but worse over the years, mainly because it’s barely updated, and has a variety of issues, and new issues love to manifest themselves over time. Over the course of 2023, I’ve stopped getting any and all notifications from the app, and yes, I have notifications enabled. I’ve checked my phone’s notifications settings, and the app’s settings, and there’s no reason they shouldn’t be working. Today (which is also my 26th birthday) was the final straw. It kept reverting my alias all on its own, and now chats don’t even update whatsoever. I have to actually close the app down completely if I get a message while I’m not in the app or even the same chat with a friend. Between the new buggy mobile app and this horrendous attempt to be like Facebook Messenger, you’re better off just talking to friends via Discord or whatever else you like to use. Sadly, if you have friends on Steam, this app is the only way to talk to them via mobile unless you have an alternative method of talking to them (again, like Discord).

First of all, I want to say that I like the chat application and I have never encountered with any kind of problems so far (I am using iPhone XR. ) I don’t know why some people are complaining about Valve making a separate chat application instead of updating the mobile application with the new chat. I believe that Valve / Steam Team or who developed this app should have released it before but I know that they are taking their time and making sure it works well. Here’s a suggestion (I don’t know how to explain it properly so I will try my best to explain it.) I know that we can use the “/store” command to show a game to our friends, and when we do that it says “view store page” but we should be able to view the game’s store page in the application instead of opening the store page from Safari application.

I'm quite happy with this new app. The previous, outdated "Steam Mobile" app would not send messages 50% of the time, and the chat would go offline constantly. This new app actually solves those problems, and also adds the ability to tap links to view them in safari, rather than having to copy+paste them like in the old Steam Mobile app. It also lets you see Steam emotes, and view pictures from the chat itself. I'm rating this a 3 out of 5 however, simply because they should have updated the old Steam Mobile with this as opposed to making a whole new app. Now I have to have both apps - one for Steam Guard Mobile Authentication, one for chat. Another gripe is the fact that I can't select chat history to copy it. If the latter problem is fixed, I'll raise my rating to 4 stars.

I installed this app specifically to be notified of messages from my Steam friends when away from my PC. I’ve triple checked my settings, and notifications are enabled on phone and in Steam account. Yet, still no push notifications when I have messages waiting! When I searched online for troubleshooting suggestions, I found numerous complaints about this app feature failing ‘again’ recently. When I tried to report this probable bug via the app’s Report Feedback, it just dumped me on the Steam Community website; no actual feedback form was found. For those thinking ‘why does this matter?’: It’s anxiety inducing having to check for messages manually over & over & over while I’m waiting to hear back from a friend. Did I miss that free time they had? Do they think I’m flaking on our plans? Do I have to expose my non-Steam contact info (and risk my personal security) to make sure I can react in a timely manner? For someone like me, who values time management and respecting the time of others, this is a complete failure of a primary app function. Steam: please fix!!! The app is otherwise ‘ok’ so far. It’s not fancy or fast, and it feels like an afterthought. But it gets the job done of communicating which is its main point.

Did Valve lose the ability to update Steam Guard or something? Okay, I kinda get it. This app is dedicated to being more social, which makes sense. Maybe there should indeed be a separate app for all social interactions. But then what does that leave on the Steam app? Just steam guard?.. ooooooh......... wow.......... So many people wonder, why didn’t they just add this to the Steam app? And so do I. The community has been begging for an update to the Steam app, and instead they do this. I love the features on this app, but I wanted an update for the Steam app. Better chatting, the ability to add steam credit to your account from the app for iOS money like iTunes credit*rolls eyes*. And just less crashing and more features like what you would do on pc in all. Also, I can’t even access my groups on steam chat app. I wanna post an announcement from the steam chat app, but I can’t. Just.. And I’m still getting notifications from both apps now when messaged. Annoying! Fix!

It’s better than the original app but there are still a ton of problems with it. For whatever reason, dictate seems wildly incorrect most of the time compared to using dictate with the rest of my phone. But more importantly, it seems to go out of its way to make your life extremely hard if you need to correct anything. Anywhere you tap to select a word will select the wrong word, often multiple lines up and just constantly trolls you while you’re trying to edit. The emoji‘s button is secretly three times bigger than it looks, and will constantly trigger while you’re trying to tap or select anything on the right side. Needs work.

While it is functional, and pleasantly featured; with a lot of little things that are nuanced, I have to repeat what everyone is saying. Why is this separate from the already existing Steam app. And Steam link too, for that matter. Make the phone app a proper progeny of the desktop Steam. The Steam app could already do direct messages to friends. Although Steam Chat is lightyears ahead because that couldn't show images or anything besides text (videos/webms don't seem to be working right now on Chat). But that circles back to why didn't they push this as part of a refresh or update of the Steam app that needs some attention to a few functionality problems and outright bugs it has. Also who even uses Steam chat anyway? I use it but not many people do, I like that its just there as part of Steam and mostly works. Actually funnily enough uploading images on the app works better than on desktop which often fails to load at all. So yay? Valve please release a content update for Team Fortress 2. Thanks in advance

This app has a visually pleasant and convenient UI, and I overall appreciate the design. This being said... why Steam Chat? The much more fundamental Steam Mobile app has gone months and months without a much needed redesign. The mobile app is slow, clunky, and ugly. I would have loved to have seen the design principles displayed in this new app baked into a Steam Mobile update, and I’m sure that’s still possible. So my request is a Steam Mobile redesign, it’s much needed because the current design is far out of date. As for this app, I’ll give it a 5/5 because I mainly reviewed it to beg for a Steam Mobile redesign frankly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I can appreciate overhauling the core steam app as it was seriously clunky and outdated; though why exactly it is now essential to use an entirely separate app for messaging, I have no idea. The old app’s message system worked fine for me, the only hiccups being the occasional duplicate message. Unless there are some wacky new chat features that necessitate having their own app, I fail to see why mobile users should be made to jump through an extra hoop to message friends from their phones. The extra funds and dev time spent to launch this app would’ve been put to far better use overhauling and updating SteamVR, which has been lagging far behind its competitors in ease of use and functionality for years now. Do better, Valve.

I try to send a picture and it sends it but doesn’t even visually display it in the chat. Then when I close out of the app to re-open it, in hopes of resetting it, it tells me it’s unable to log me in (when I was JUST logged in beforehand). I say “okay, I’ll just try the retry button”. And it repeats the message “unable to login” over and over. I really should be giving this 1 star, but its only saving grace is that it is cross-platform with my PC and reflects the same messages sent to and from.

For those who support the idea of just “combining all the apps into one”, that would mean that the storage requirement would be a lot bigger for the app. At least with having them separated, I can pick and choose what features I want to use without wasting any storage, because not everyone wants to chat or not everyone wants to use the Store. Combine it all into one and you won’t be able to uninstall those individual features that you don’t use to free up storage space. With that being said, I do agree that the Steam Chat app does needs to be updated.

This app has been around for years, and for some reason with the latest update to the associated Steam app, Valve has finally decided to force users onto this Steam Chat app. This app has been notorious within the Steam community as constantly crashing when sending messages, the UI being not optimized for a mobile phone, and just overall unnecessary when chats have been always within the Steam app itself. Quite frankly, this update has just made me overall NOT use the Steam app. No point really if I can’t send my friends a message, and no point in having this app cause it doesn’t even work as good as the old chats…

First of all, this app is obviously designed for a mobile phone and not a tablet. I find it hard to use on a larger tablet because it’s just a scaled up version of a mobile phone interface. Please release a version designed for tablets. Secondlt, the message threads are not updated in an obvious way. The friend list do not show the latest message from the individual on the preview… it only updates after you have entered into the message thread to retrieve the new messages. This whole separation of the old steam app is a terrible idea.

This app WAS fine a year ago, then steam devs decided to redesign the entire app to have a similar feel to the desktop app, ever since then the app has been broken. I can’t open links, when I try to view store pages for games it pulls a loading screen for a sec then just goes back to the previous page, links dont work, pages are broken, I cant even find a game in the wild and be like “huh I should add that to my wishlist” nope I have to get on my pc now because the app is so broken I cant view a frickin store page anymore. Fix it guys, this is ridiculous, you shouldnt try to fix what isn’t broken.

The addition of being able to send pictures is nice over the older version … but given the main focus is chat … it is just not ipad friendly. I know how to type for real and not the gimped thumb way. Give us ipad users an app with a full key board instead of the crap iphone style. For its primary use it is near useless for people that for real type. Give us a proper ipad version instead of gimped iphone hand me downs

So after removing the chat function from the steam mobile app itself and destroying that UI, Valve has decided to take it one step further and make the UI for the separate chat app even WORSE. The app does not have a tablet/landscape mode, and instead displays in it’s vertical mode screen all the time, even when the device is in landscape. Which is painful to type in because the keyboard only appears in that tiny little window. Totally useless as an app until they improve or update it. (Which, knowing how Valve treats all their IP’s and products, will likely never happen)

It does it’s job, and it does it well. However, it doesn’t seem worth keeping it. The original Steam app is quite awful, but while being clunky, the chat was still functional. To have developed a whole new app instead of overhauling the current app (which is severely out-of-date (like, two years without an update)), just seems completely unreasonable. This doesn’t help me in anyway, all it does it give me more clutter on my home-screen.

I use the app daily to chat with friends and it works great for that but some of the features advertised simply do not work. One of those are notifications, I receive no notifications. I also notice when I close the app my status is taken offline instead of being shown as away. Hope things improve in the future but knowing Valve I won’t hold my breath for anything in the near future.

First off, why is a separate app needed just for chats? Also the app doesn’t even work for its single function of use. I’m unable to chat in groups I’m in on steam through their dedicated chatting app. When trying to change chat channels I’m in the app freezes and I’m unable to do anything about it. All around awful experience for something that shouldn’t even exist since the chat for steam should just be built into their already existing dedicated mobile app

I think chat is very usefully for texting your friends, but it does not work for calling them. I feel like this should be a built in function to steam chat because of its name and because it would allow some people to voice chat when they are not by their computer

I honestly don’t know what’s worse. This? The steam mobile app or the web viewer via iphone. Not one will let me send a message, well no that isn’t entirely true. This app lets me send a message as long as I copy and paste it in. Is it so difficult to get a chat system right? 2 stars because it actually lets you see which of your friends is online and clean interface. Forget this app, just get the web app working. Would be cheaper too.

For one, this should have been an update to the original steam app in the first place. And now that they’re separate, they’re not properly integrated. I still get notifications through the old steam app for chat messages and I can’t ever clear them out because chat doesn’t work on the old app. Opening store pages doesn’t open them in the steam app, it opens a safari window. And why haven’t they fixed the old, broken steam app that hasn’t been updated in two years?

This app is quite decent. The ability to use steam emoticons is probably my favorite. My only real gripe with this app is that notifications is broken. If you want to continue getting notifications on Steam then I don’t recommend getting this yet because it breaks notifications on the this app and the original Steam App. This issue happened to me but don’t know about everyone else. If that gets fixed this can become a 3-4 star rating.

Steals user data and passwords as far as i’m concerned At this point might as well make 10 other apps to go with it. Lets just make an app for every feature on steam. A friends list app, a store app, a community marketplace app, a groups app, a steam news app, a steam 2 factor authentication app. Then I can make a steam folder on my phone and sometimes just go play around in all 12 of my steam apps

It’s suppose to be a simple app really. Just talk with friends on steam and that’s it. How the app has so many bugs and overall bad interface is beyond me. I always found it weird that this app had such low ratings when all it has to do is one simple thing. But after using it I can now fully understand why. Too many dumb issues to name in this review. I would only use this app if you absolutely have to

This app is very poorly optimized. It is constantly losing connection to the Steam servers or just out right crashing. It’s a shame as the app use to work very well, but they seemed to stop caring about it. When the app does work, it’s very handy. But the inability to clear chats or erase messages like before is again a great shame. Hopefully in the future this app is updated better, or it is moved over to the main Steam App and fixed.

I definitely understand not wanting to be a battery hog like messenger as that app destroys your battery life. However it seems like a few compromises could be made. It takes a full minute to update after I receive the notification sometimes which is just a bummer. Terrible app. Please invest some more money into this app.

Why update the old ui to roll out with two separate apps. I have to install a new app to chat with friends. The confirmation window for trades isn’t any better now it in a clutter of all other notifications that are irrelevant. The trade window is absolutely clapped, why does it say that we’re exchanging x amount of items for x amount of items when the old ui gave you the count of each specific item in the trade

You can’t do a lot of things that have become standard. Videos? Forget about it, you can’t send them even though there’s support for viewing them. You can’t send any file that isn’t an image or gif. Frequently you will get chat notifications ages after you open the app and see them. Even twitter’s DMs are better than this, and that’s not even purpose built for DMing people!

Less than week ago I tried to download this Steam Chat Value app, for whatever reason it will not let me download. All I see is a round circle that refuses to download it fully. At the same time I wish that it can download it fully. In other words when it download fully I can use this app. So that way I can download it in order for me to use this Steam Chat Value.

Now that steam, main app removed the chat feature I have to use this. It was clearly made form phones. Ignoring that tablet users exist. The interface is small and it lets you stretch it. Still small and does fill in the whole screen when used horizontal. The keyboard is not a full keyboard either making it annoying to type. Fix this problem. Not everyone uses these things on phones.

I hate apps where there’s another separate app for chats, it should be one convenient bundle. I only have the steam app 1.) for steam guard 2.) to check on my friends vaguely. I can’t even add a friend without an invite link on the app, so when I want to search for a friend that I don’t have added that’s not online, I can’t through the app. Overall very frustrating and not worth the time/space an additional app takes up

Not a fan of the split app idea, won’t be using this simply for that. You obviously tried to clone a stand-alone discord app, but you aren’t Discord you’re steam. Not to mention the fact that the actual steam app has never looked more outdated than it is right now (last update was TWO years ago) functionality is also not on par with the PC steam client at the moment. Diverting resources to a separate app to clone discord wasn’t exactly the route you should have taken.

The app is absolutely terrible. For starters, why do i need to download a separate app when you can just add the chat functions into the normal steam app. Second it has way too many bugs. I can’t even log in most of the time because it “fails to connect to steam.” I can already confirm that this is not an internet issue and is an issue with the app. Overall one of the worst apps I have had to use.

Why add 2 steam apps in the first place when you could’ve just made a chat inside the original steam app? Most of the time Steam Chat doesn’t even let you receive messages from other players and you have to close down the app and reopen it just for the message to send.

First of all, why do we now need two applications to perform the job of just one app? And why is this app which is now dedicated to one purpose and one purpose only WORSE than the original all in one app? This app is disgusting. I have to delete and redownload it on a regular basis to fix this issue where it says “friends network loading” forever. There is no fix except to download the app again. And I don’t use a PC anymore so I’m stuck with this garbage. Seems like anymore, all tech companies do is make their apps and technology worse, charge more money for it, and take all the joy out of everything. I’m glad I don’t use steam every day anymore.

Far better chat experience than the old, clunky app. Still waiting for more than just chat, though. Would love to see the old app brought up to date, or have features moved over.

Doesn’t show times accurately without closing and reopening the app from multitasking. For example if it says a friend went offline 5 hours ago then if you reload the app it will say 10 hours or a longer time other than 5. Also there’s no voice so you can’t talk to people. It would be nice to have the voice chat like the desktop version of steam.

I don’t hate this but I do hate that the two apps are not combined, and even that they are EXTREMELY hard to regonize from each other, I do get, and have the same problem with iMessage and Phone apps because they could be easily combined but this is a new level of that.

I don’t really understand why we must have a entirely separate application for chatting with our steam account. It’s a bit messy and seems like lazy work, not something I expected from Valve. Hopefully there’s plans to merge the chat into the main steam application because this really isn’t a good look.

There’s probably mixed opinions for splitting the Chat and main mobile program but the update was necessary since the main client is so outdated. The program seems to be designed for phones first because I cannot find an option for Landscape mode which I use a lot on this tablet.

Okay I like some of the improvements BUT having to download a separate application to do the same exact thing you were able to do with one is kinda backwards, it’s super inconvenient. I just want to chat with my friends while looking through games and news and this new set up makes it so needlessly difficult to enjoy your experience.

It’s the currently up to date steam app just like on the PC, the app we’ve been waiting for since the new chat, complete with emoticons and links and all that other good stuff. Shame it can’t be on the regular app.

I don’t really have any complaints regarding about the port however I am not receiving any notifications at all from my friends, i’ve even checked settings and everything. Overall it’s pretty cool!

I really like that you can now chat with groups and friends over mobile but I have one issue, you can’t call any groups or friends, my friends prefer to use steam over discord and I don’t want to have to get on a computer every time I contact my friends

And here I thought Steam's mobile app couldn't get any worse. The chat function in the old unified app was wonky and buggy, and didn't support image attachments. This "improved" chat app doesn't even support landscape on iPad making it effectively unusable on this platform. Oh, and they added a button to attach images but it doesn't even work.

On the regular Steam app it’s kinda janky towards the chat side of things. This app that i’m sure is new changed stuff. It’s basically like being on your computer. it’s super handy & im thankful i can send memes from my phone to steam friends now lol.

Just using it for chat and it functions on mobile device for everything I need between gaming sessions.

Steam Chat is a good app, but you can do everything there is a to do on Steam Chat on the Steam. So there really isn’t any point in installing it since all of the features on Steam Chat are already on the Steam app.