Steam Broadcasts let you watch your friends play their favorite games. You can also set up broadcasts to let others watch you play.
You can read more about the broadcasts in the official update.
What browser is required to view?
The following browsers currently support Steam Broadcasts:
- Steam client
- Google Chrome (versions 39+)
- Apple Safari (Version 8+ on OSX)
- Internet Explorer (version 11 on Windows 8; not supported on other versions of Windows)
- Mozilla Firefox (version 42+)
The above does not apply to mobile devices. Steam Broadcasts are not supported on iOS devices.
What are the account requirements for streaming?
Accounts that meet the following requirements can stream games:
- The account must have made a purchase on Steam, i.e. the account must not have
- The account must not be blocked from accessing the community
Are there content restrictions?
As a Steam Subscriber, you agree to be bound by the terms of the Steam Subscriber Agreement, the Steam Code of Conduct, and . You are responsible for the use of your account and for any posted messages, comments and actions taken through your account. Your online activities and relationships with other subscribers should be governed by common sense and etiquette.
How to report a broadcast?
Select "Report" in the window or page with the broadcast. After filing a complaint, Steam may retain all or part of the broadcast for review.
How do I make my broadcast visible in Community Hub?
To do this, select "Everyone can watch my broadcasts" in the broadcast privacy settings.
How can I find out who is watching my broadcast?
If your friend starts watching or asks to watch your broadcast, you will receive a notification. You can view the list of viewers at any time in the broadcast panel of the Steam overlay, or if you're watching your own broadcast, at the top of the chat.
Can I save my broadcast?
No, on this moment broadcasts are only live. However, if a broadcast has been reported, Steam may retain all or part of it for review.
How to change video bitrate and resolution, adjust microphone and set desktop options?
To access advanced settings, open the Steam client menu and go to the Broadcasts tab.
On what operating systems can you broadcast?
Steam Streaming is currently available through the Steam client on Windows 7, 8, and 10. Support for Linux, macOS, and Windows Vista will be available in the future.
Troubleshooting broadcast issues
If broadcasts for a long time are malfunctioning, something may be preventing them from working.
Since some of the instructions require advanced computer skills and may be outside of Steam, we recommend that you contact your local computer diagnostics specialist for assistance.
Restarting the computer
It is best to start the setup by restarting both Steam and the computer.
Checking broadcast settings
Make sure you are using necessary settings broadcasts.
You can find these settings in the "Broadcast" tab by going to Steam > Settings in the Steam client.
Reinstalling Steam
The Steam reinstallation file can be downloaded, after which Steam can be installed in the same location where it is currently installed.
This process will make sure that all the files required for the overlay to work are configured correctly. It will not affect already installed games.
ATTENTION! Uninstalling Steam will remove all game content.
Update local network
Restart all modems and routers on your local network. Long and continuous operation of network equipment can lead to network errors or slow connection speeds. This can cause broadcast requests to take longer than usual, or the connection to completely expire.
If you are using wireless connection try to connect network cable directly to the computer.
Checking the network connection
Some ISPs cache or compress network data to save throughput(especially it concerns mobile networks). Because of this, Steam may experience problems. We recommend checking to see if the problem persists when connected to a different network, preferably a different ISP.
Checking the operation of firewalls
Some firewalls may block streaming when the Steam client connects to the servers. We recommend that you contact a computer specialist to make sure that the firewall is not interfering with Steam. You may need to turn off the firewall for a while. You can also try adding Steam to the exclusion list.
Checking the operation of antiviruses
Often, antiviruses deeply affect the disk and network processes of the system, which can interfere with the operation of Steam. Some games may use specific anti-piracy technologies that antiviruses sometimes mistake for malware, causing false warnings.
We recommend that you contact a computer specialist to make sure that the antivirus does not interfere with Steam. You may need to temporarily disable your firewall for testing purposes. As a solution, you can make Steam an exception list (for example, disable scanning in the Steam Library folders).
Checking settings for other programs and services
Any program that monitors or modifies system activity or disk/network activity can make it difficult to load or run the game. Such applications and services may be running in the background. They are usually associated with antiviruses, ad blockers, network optimizers, firewalls, proxy emulators, as well as programs for screen capture, system cleaner, performance booster, etc.
We recommend that you contact a computer specialist to make sure that the above services and applications do not interfere with Steam. They may have to be temporarily disabled for testing.
Have questions or need help?
Check out the discussions on the Steam Broadcasts group for answers to other frequently asked questions.
Previously, Steam did not have any privacy settings, and the profile could be made private only by closing the account itself. Now there is individual settings visibility of the account itself, inventory and game activity. However, not all users know how to open the inventory for any manipulation.
Opening inventory in Steam
The user's inventory must be open in order to trade or find out the value of a Steam account. This can be easily done through personal settings privacy.
You can perform this procedure through a running client or a browser-based version of the service. Keep in mind that global visibility for third-party services does not open immediately: usually you need to wait at least a few minutes, in rare cases up to an hour - after that, different sites will be able to see the open inventory, and you will be able to perform any manipulations with items.
If you plan to make an exchange for the first time, you will need to enable Steam Guard, otherwise the service will delay the exchange for 15 days in order to protect the things of the accounts. You can read about how to do this in our other article.
Additionally, you can use the link to automatically start sharing with you. Using the link, you can greatly speed up the start of the exchange - a friend or other Steam user will not have to look for your profile, add you as a friend, and only after that, by clicking on you and offering an exchange, start transferring items. Enough of a simple click on the link, and the exchange will begin immediately. Read more about enabling auto-exchange below.
Now you know how you can open your inventory on Steam and optimize the process of sharing with other users.
Everyone is familiar with gaming Steam service, which allows you to buy and pre-order the top toys that exist today. He gained particular popularity due to periodic sales, allowing you to get what you want with a discount of up to 80%. But few people know that in "Steam" you can "earn" ... Well, or at least return part of the money spent. And for those who like to collect various items, there is a system of "badges" that can be obtained by playing your favorite applications. But this cannot be done without knowing how to open inventory for exchange in Steam.
Desire to earn
People who play games for quite a long time, one day wonder if they can benefit from all this. Yes, you certainly may. You can sell earned, won items from your inventory in Steam. But not every item has a high price. You can trade items throughout the year, and earn a maximum of 300 rubles. Therefore, it is always worth knowing supply and demand.
The most expensive inventory on Steam is rare items from the most popular games such as CS:GO and Dota 2. Unfortunately, obtaining such items is a lottery. You need to open boxes with rare items with keys that can be bought with real money. Thus, without investing, you will not be able to get items for sale. Everything is like in the real world. But if you still decide to engage in trade, you need to know how to open inventory for exchange in Steam.
Setting
There are several ways to get items for sale. The first of them is the purchase of goods on the Steam market and their resale for more high prices. But there is a danger of colliding with other traders. Yes, and the commission for the purchase is quite high. Therefore, you run the risk of "being left without pants" without even starting to trade.
A more common way to get items is through an exchange. On community forums, people leave messages with offers to exchange ... 1 to 2. That is, a person gives the trader two items in exchange for the much-needed 1st. As you can see, if a person has something to offer, he can always get rich without paying any commission.
If you choose to trade, people should be able to see the items you have to offer. If at the very beginning of your career you have, say, 50 units of a product, and you can list it all in a forum post, then after a couple of months the list can become too long. In order for other users to see your inventory of items, you will have to open it.
How to make an open inventory in Steam?
- To do this, launch "Steam" and go to the main page.
- At the top in the center we see our nickname. Click on it and select the "Inventory" button.
- By default, the main inventory tab called "Steam" will open in front of us. We look a little higher and see the inscriptions "Offers of exchange" and "More ...".
- Press the second and select the sub-item "Privacy settings ...".
- Here we need to set some checkboxes.
- Profile status - open.
- Inventory - open. Gifts can be hidden if you do not want to exchange them.
- Exchange confirmations - enabled.
- Bid confirmations - included.
- We save the changes.
Now you know how to open inventory for exchange in Steam. If you create a trade topic in the appropriate forum thread, people will be able to view your inventory, select the items they need and send a trade request.
Friends
Swapping with friends is much easier. But at the same time, inventory should still be open for them. Let's start with the question of why you should add friends.
The main plus is that if you collect a badge from cards, then by opening the Badge Progress, you can see which of your friends have the cards you are missing. If you want to know how to view a friend's inventory in Steam in full, you need to do the following.
- Open Steam.
- At the bottom right, you should have an icon showing which of your friends is online. Click on "list of friends".
- Click the arrow next to your nickname and select "View Profile".
- In the window that opens, in the list on the right, find the item "Inventory".
- If a friend's inventory is open, you will be able to see all of their items.
After that, you can offer your friend an exchange if he is online.
Caution
Before you open inventory for exchange in Steam, think about security. Be sure to specify exactly such settings as were written in the article. Otherwise, scammers can deprive you of your entire inventory, and Steam technical support will not be able to do anything. Also, always check the value of traded items on the market. It would be foolish to give away an "item" worth 100 rubles in exchange for a couple of ruble cards.
Valve Software has announced an update to the system for protecting the personal data of users of the Steam gaming platform. Now each user can make his own Steam account a little more private..
… and in particular, provide other users with access to their game profile, game library, inventory, etc.
But most importantly, now the user profile in can do " Hidden " or visible " Only for friends «.
In terms of data privacy, the innovation, of course, looks significant. On the other hand, this also means that useful services such as, say, Steam Spy, are automatically rendered useless (for now, at least). Since they worked on the basis of just open user data. But now is not about that. And about that...
… how to set profile privacy through Steam account
There seems to be nothing complicated, but at first some points are a little puzzling, and besides, the privacy settings are in a separate section, outside the main " settings» account. Therefore, in order:
how to open the privacy settings section:
- on the computer, launch the Steam client (we wait until it downloads the on-duty update) and log in;
- click on the nickname in the upper right corner of the client window and select " View profile «;
- in the next window, click the button Edit profile " and then - " My privacy settings «.
The new section currently looks like this:
The settings available to the user are presented in the following assortment:
- « My profile » — user profile visibility (default is « Open«);
- « game details " - visibility of game parameters (default is " Only for friends“), you can immediately activate the option “Always keep the total playtime private” (Always hide the total time in games);
- « Inventory » — visibility of «Inventory» (by default « Only for friends") with the option "Always keep Steam Gifts private" (Always hide gifts on Steam);
- « Can post comments on my profile " (default " Only for friends") - here you can specify who can leave comments in the profile, or disable them altogether (option " Hide«).
Changing the "My Profile" setting automatically changes all settings. Those. if in " My profile ” you specify, for example, “Hidden”, then everything else will also be “Hidden”. But if you leave the profile "Public", then by default, all other parameters will be visible only to your friends, unless you separately specify "Public" or "Hidden" for each.
Briefly about the main privacy settings:
My Profile : Visibility of Steam profile data, friends list, badges, level, comment, and list of groups you are a member of.
Game Details : Visibility of the game list in your account, Wishlist, Achievement list, , as well as your current status on Steam (none or "In Play" and with the name of the game you're currently playing).
Inventory : Visibility of your Inventory, including the list of items you've received in games, the list of Steam Trading Cards you have, and the list of Steam Gifts.
In addition, in the section My privacy settings”There are also two more options that the user is not supposed to change. "My basic details" (user data) contains your game nickname and avatar - they are always open and available to everyone. And the visibility of each individual screenshot or work in the workshop is already assigned separately in the corresponding sections of the client.
Valve also noted that they are currently working on an even newer “invisibility” mode for user profiles. In this mode, the player will be displayed simply as “offline” to outsiders, however, the main functionality of the client will be available, in particular, it will be possible to send messages through the Steam account in the usual way.
Steam offers a wide range of options for customizing the user account, application interface, and more. With the help of Steam settings, you can customize this playground to suit your needs. For example, you can set the design for your page: what will be displayed on it for other users. You can also customize how you communicate on Steam; choose whether to be notified of new messages on Steam sound signal, or it would be redundant. Read on to learn how to set up Steam.
If you do not yet have a profile on Steam, then you can, where it contains detailed information about registering a new account. After you create an account, you will need to customize the look and feel of your page, as well as create a description for it.
In order to edit the appearance of your personal page on Steam, you need to go to the form for changing account information. To do this, click on your nickname in top menu Steam client, and then select "Profile".
After that, you need to click the "Edit Profile" button. It is located on the right side of the window.
The process of editing and filling out a profile is quite simple. The edit form is as follows:
You need to fill in the fields that contain information about you one by one. Here detailed description each of the fields:
Profile name - contains the name that will be displayed on your page, as well as in various lists, for example, in the list of friends or in chat when communicating with a friend.
Real name - Your real name will also be displayed on your page under your nickname. Probably your real life friends will want to find you in the system. In addition, you may want to include your real name on your profile.
Country - you need to select the country in which you live.
Region, region - select the region or region of your residence.
City - here you need to select the city in which you live.
A personal link is a link that users can use to go to your page. It is advisable to use short and clear options. Previously, instead of this link, a digital designation in the form of your profile identification number was used. If you leave this field blank, then the link to go to your page will just contain this an identification number, but it's better to set a personal link manually, come up with a nice nickname.
An avatar is a picture that will represent your Steam profile. It will appear at the top of your profile page, as well as in other services on Steam, such as your friends list and next to your posts on Steam. trading platform etc. In order to set an avatar, you need to click the "Choose file" button. Any image will do as a picture. jpg format, png or bmp. Please note that too large pictures will be cut off at the edges. If you wish, you can choose a picture from ready-made avatars in Steam.
Facebook - This field allows you to link your account to a Facebook profile if you have Account on this social network.
About Me - The information you enter in this field will appear on your profile page as your story about yourself. In this description, you can use formatting, for example, make the text bold. To see the formatting, click the Help button. Also here you can use emoticons that appear when you click the corresponding button.
Profile background - this setting allows you to personalize your page. You can ask background image for your profile. You cannot use your own image; you can only use those that are in your Steam inventory.
Display icon - in this field you can select the icon that you want to display on your profile page. You can read about how to get badges in this article.
Main group - in this field you can specify the group that you would like to display on your profile page.
Showcases - using this field, you can display some specific content on the page. For example, you can output the usual text fields or fields that are a showcase of screenshots you have chosen (alternatively, some kind of review of the game that you have made). Also here you can specify a list of favorite games, etc. This information will be displayed at the top of your profile.
After you complete all the settings and fill in the required fields, click the "Save Changes" button.
The form also contains privacy settings. To change privacy settings, select the appropriate tab at the top of the form.
You can choose from the following options:
Profile status - this setting is responsible for which users can view your page in open version. The "Hidden" option allows you to hide the information on your page from all Steam users except you. In any case, you will be able to view the contents of your profile. You can also open your profile to friends or make its content available to everyone.
Comments - This setting controls which users can leave comments on your page, as well as comments on your content, such as uploaded screenshots or videos. Here, the same options are available as in the previous case: that is, you can prohibit leaving comments at all, allow only friends to leave comments, or make the posting of comments completely open.
Inventory - last setting is responsible for the openness of your inventory. The inventory contains the items you have on Steam. The same options are available here as in the previous two cases: you can hide your inventory from everyone, open it to friends, or in general to all Steam users. If you're going to be actively trading items with other Steam users, it's a good idea to make your inventory public. An open inventory is also a requirement if you want to link to a trade. You can read about how to make an exchange link in this article.
Also here is an option that is responsible for hiding or opening your gifts. Once you have selected all the settings, click the "Save Changes" button.
Now that you've set up your profile on Steam, let's move on to the settings for the Steam client itself. These settings will increase the usability of this playground.
Steam client settings
All steam settings are contained in the Steam "Settings" item. It is located in the upper left corner of the client menu.
In this window, you should be most interested in the "Friends" tab, as it is responsible for the communication settings in Steam.
Using this tab, you can set options such as automatic display in the list of friends after logging into Steam, display of the time when messages were sent in the chat, how the window opens when starting a conversation with a new user. In addition, it contains settings for various notifications: you can enable sound alert on Steam you can also enable or disable the display of windows when each message is received.
In addition, you can customize how you are notified about events such as a friend connecting to the network, a friend entering the game. After setting the parameters, click the OK button to confirm them. You may need other settings tabs in some specific cases. For example, the "Downloads" tab is responsible for the settings for downloading games on Steam. Learn more about how to complete this setting and how to increase the speed of downloading games on Steam, you can read in this article.
Using the "Voice" tab, you can configure your microphone, which you use in Steam for voice communication. The "Interface" tab allows you to change the language in Steam, as well as slightly change some elements appearance Steam client.
After selecting all the settings, the Steam client will become much more convenient and enjoyable to use.
Now you know how to make Steam settings. Tell your friends who also use Steam about it. Perhaps they, too, can change something and make Steam more convenient for personal use.