led has just shipped A major overhaul of Steam’s In-Game Overlay user interface in the Steam Beta, among other new coats of paint. It also comes with one particularly cool idea: a mobile notepad.
Yes, you probably already have a notepad app on your computer, but does it automatically show you the correct file that goes with every game you play? Can you put it on top of your game so it’s visible while you play? Is it automatically synced from PC to PC via the cloud? Valve says its new Notes app does all of that, and works offline, too.
It’s not the only window you can pin to your recent game over a game: Valve says guides, discussions, and the Steam web browser can all be called into your game with adjustable opacity — you can even watch video while you’re playing a game using this browser, according to Valve.
You’ll also see a new game overview when you drag the overlay, a toolbar for quick access to “anything you might need in the middle of a game,” a new tab for notifications, and a screenshot manager. The patch also brings optional hardware acceleration to the Linux version of Steam, with a Mac on the way, and minor UI tweaks to other parts of the interface. you can see Valve’s full update post is here With more screenshots.
Valve says it’s starting to ship these kinds of changes across Steam Desktop, Big Picture Mode, and the Steam Deck simultaneously — but the Deck only has it in its own Linux desktop mode as of today. Lawrence Yang from Valve Confirms Features like note mode will come to deck games mode later as well.
You will need to Subscribe to Steam Beta To see any of this in the meantime, until Valve adds the changes to a stable release.
“Writer. Amateur musicaholic. Infuriatingly humble zombie junkie. General internet maven. Bacon enthusiast. Coffee nerd.”