Are you a note taking gamer? Because I am from way back. Once upon a time, it was cheat codes and solutions scribbled into the dedicated and generous Notes sections of a game’s manual, then it was whatever scrap of paper I could find when those started disappearing. More recently, it’s in my phone’s rapidly-bloating notes app, nestled between half-baked ideas for video games that I’ve bolted upright out of bed at 3AM to write and shopping lists that I’ll inevitably forget to look at when I’m actually at the shops.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to lead up to is that sometimes, folks gotta take notes. Whether it’s crucial information to solving a particularly multifaceted puzzle or just a laundry list of things you need to do lest you forget and miss something important. And Steam is making note-taking even easier and better as part of its newest update to the Steam desktop app. Now, you’ll be able to bang out notes right within Steam’s redesigned in-game overlay, and then pin what you’ve written as a movable, scalable, semi-transparent widget over top of your game screen.
The update actually has a whole list of new features, including a completely rebuilt framework to make future updates better and faster, plenty of other UI overhauls and overlays and pinnable windows outside of just the notes thing that I’m clearly obsessing over. In fact, if you cast your gaze just down yonder of this thoughtfully-written copy you’ll see that I’ve transposed all the information provided by Steam, right here for you to look over. So, check it out, it’s the list of everything changed in the shiny, new Steam desktop app update:
Steam Update June 2023
New framework, new foundation
The most impactful changes in this update aren’t immediately visible; much of the work went into changing how we share code across the Steam Desktop Client, Big Picture mode, and Steam Deck. These changes also means quicker implementation and iteration of new features. For example, many of the features in this update (like Notes in the overlay) are simultaneously shipping on Steam Deck because of the shared codebase.
Steam gets a fresh coat of paint
This update also brings targeted visual and usability improvements across Steam – we’ve gone through and updated dialogs, menus, fonts, and colours. The main Steam header and footer, Settings, and the Screenshot Manager are just a few examples of spots with refreshed UI.
Steam notifications have been updated and improved to be more useful to you. The green bell only lights up when there’s truly something new for you. The tray view is limited to new notifications, and there’s a “View all” page with a historical view. We’ve also added new notifications specific settings, so you can control the notifications you’ll see, and where you’ll see them.
We’ve completely overhauled the in-game overlay (accessible via Shift+Tab while in-game). It’s got a brand-new user interface, adding new utility and allowing for more customisability. There is a new toolbar, giving you access to anything you may need in the middle of a game – friends chat, achievements progress, guides, discussions, a browser, and more.
We’ve picked a few overlay windows to show by default, and you can pick and personalise the pieces of content you’d like to see in your own overlay – settings are saved between games.
The new Notes feature lets you jot down notes about the game that you’re currently playing. It comes with rich text formatting, the ability to paste images, multiple notes per game, and can even be used in offline mode. These notes are saved per game and are synced across to any other PCs (or Steam Decks!) you are logged into. They are also accessible outside the in-game overlay, on the game details page.
We’ve also added the ability to pin windows from the overlay, so that they can appear on top of the game – while in-game. The opacity level of these windows is adjustable, and only the contents of the window will be pinned, excluding the title bar and other extraneous UI. This new functionality is available for Notes, Guides, Discussions, Achievements, and the web browser. This feature is perfect for keeping track of progress or guides while in-game, or for multi-tasking maniacs who love to have a movie on in the background while they game.
And that’s not all! The overlay now includes a Game Overview panel: your one-stop shop to see what’s going on with the game since you last played it. It shows what achievements you have in progress, which friends are also playing, top guides, news, and more. In addition, the browser, achievements, and screenshot manager windows have been updated (both in the overlay and in the desktop client).
The controller experience has been improved as well. The updated controller configurator from Steam Deck is now part of the overlay when a gamepad is connected, and virtual menus can now be used while gaming on Desktop.
Mac and Linux
The technical work in this update makes it possible to enable hardware acceleration for the Mac & Linux versions of Steam, bringing them up to par with Windows. You should see snappier animations, scrolling and more responsive UI.
