Everyone will know you’re playing stuff on your Steam Deck now

The last couple of Steam beta updates have been effectively game-changing in some way, including (but not limited to) a huge rework of how Family Sharing works, and the release of Game Recording. The latest addition – a playing-on-Deck icon – is far less important, yes, but it’s delightful all the same.

Specifically, Valve has just announced that the new Steam Beta channel update includes some all-new Steam Deck icons for the Friends interface. Those who access the Beta will, therefore, be able to quickly and easily spot which of their Steam friends might be gaming on the Deck, which is just a neat sort of thing to keep in mind. It is potentially useful, too, because while your friend might be eager to play a match or two of Helldivers 2 when they’re online on their PC, bugging them about it isn’t all that desirable while they’re, say, enjoying some Castle Crashers in a crowded train.

Steam Deck’s new update is all about vanity, sort of

If you’d like to sign up for immediate access to the hotly anticipated Steam Deck Friends list icons, all you need to do is access the beta build of Steam on your Deck:

• Settings > System > Beta Participation.
• Expand the ‘System Update Channel’ pull-down and select the ‘Beta’ option when it appears.
• After the update is applied, restart your device.

On PC, you can do the same by doing the following:

• Click on the ‘Steam’ button in the upper left corner of the Steam PC application, then choose the ‘Settings’ menu.
• Interface > Client Beta Participation.
• Select the ‘Steam Beta Update’ option from the drop-down list that opens up.
• Restart the Steam client using the ‘Restart Now’ button when it appears.

Obviously, the truly big, meaningful boons come through the hugely improved Family Sharing system and the new Game Recording feature, but I’m quite fond of the new On-Deck icon as well. Hey, now everyone will know you’re playing stuff on your Deck, and isn’t that really what it’s all about, in the end? And who knows, maybe Valve will even create a custom offline Deck icon for those of us who set their Friends UI to ‘Invisible’ at all times.