The Steam development team announced the release of a new version of the Steam client, which contains all new features that have successfully passed beta testing.

The most important changes concern the unification and sharing of code for the Steam desktop client, Big Picture mode, and Steam Deck. This means faster implementation and iteration of new features in the future.

The update also includes improvements to the visuals and usability of Steam, including dialogs, menus, fonts, and colors. The top and bottom of the Steam client window, settings, and screenshot manager are just a few places where the interface has been updated.

Also, Steam notifications have been improved. The green bell will light up only when something really new has appeared. Only new notifications will appear in the notification area, and the full history can be seen by clicking the “View All” button.

In the new version, the in-game overlay (Shift+Tab in the game) was completely redesigned. It received a new interface, new functions, and customization options. The new toolbar lets you chat with friends, view achievements, guides, and discussions, and use the browser while playing. There is an opportunity to choose the windows you want to see in the overlay, these settings are saved for all games.

Steam’s new feature is Notes, aka To-Do’s, and some of your impressions about the game, which are saved separately for each game and synchronized between all PCs or Steam Deck devices. Notes support formatting text, inserting images, and creating multiple notes. This feature is available not only in the overlay but also on the game’s library page.

Notes, like some other overlay windows, can now be pinned to be in the foreground during the game, and transparency can be adjusted. This feature is available for notes, guides, discussions, achievements, and the browsers.

The update also enables hardware acceleration support in the Steam client not only for Windows but also for Mac and Linux. As a result, the responsiveness of the interface, animations, and scrolling have been improved. In general, I got the impression that the new Steam client is really significantly faster than the previous version.