Steam Chat App Launched for Mobile

Following Valve’s release of Steam Chat for the desktop last year, comes an app version of the service available for both Android and iOS. The mobile app incorporates many of the features found in its desktop client, putting it up against more popular gaming-based chat applications such as Discord.

Steam Chat’s Features

Going into specifics, Steam Chat’s app boasts the following features:

• (Viewing Your) Friends List – See who’s in game or online at a glance;
• Rich Chat – Higher fidelity links, videos, Tweets, GIFs, Steam emoticons and more, for a better chatting experience;
• Invite Links – Add new friends on Steam with a uniquely-generated invite link;
• Customisable Notifications – Notifications on mobile that can be customised according to friend, group chat and chat channel; and
• Group Chats – Forming groups make it easier to stay in touch with your communities, and for organising game nights with your best friends.

Though we’re not sure how it’ll fare against Discord, it’ll probably take some time before it can catch up. After all, Steam Chat currently doesn’t have a voice chat feature, which would make it inconvenient to use if you’re gaming with friends.

Is this Steam’s only mobile app?

Steam Chat is actually Valve’s second major app launch this month. Valve’s Steam Link app was officially launched last week, after previously getting rejected by Apple. While Steam Link is still in it’s beta-testing stage on Google Play, it’s ready for usage on iOS!

Unlike Steam Chat, Steam Link is more utility based. The app aims to allow its users to beam Steam games from their desktop PC to an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. On Androids, we suppose that means Android mobile devices, and maybe tablets from certain brands.

All in all, it seems like Valve finally has an app in the gaming market, focused on letting gamers communicate with each other. We’re looking forward to seeing what further updates Steam Chat (and Steam Link) might implement in the future!