Image: Valve
Valve’s latest Steam Client Beta update lets you watch movies and take notes while gaming.
Valve has launched a new update for its Steam Client Beta, adding some surprisingly useful features that allow for more multitasking while gaming. The update now lets users pin windows from the Steam overlay, which means that they’ll stay pinned in-game as well. Valve says that, “yes, you can watch movies while you play games if you really want to.”
Clearly, that’s not the intended use of this feature. Pinning windows would be more useful for anyone playing complicated puzzle games who might need access to walkthroughs and notes in-game, instead of keeping a phone nearby for the same purpose. There’s also a new toolbar that lets users open up different applications while gaming, which means that they can message friends, look up achievements and more.
The Steam Client Beta has also added a new Notes app, which functions exactly the way you’d expect it to. You can write up notes on specific games with different formatting options, and all these notes can be viewed offline. Multiple notes can be created and saved per game, and all your notes will be saved to other devices as long as you’re logged into Steam.
Valve admits that some of the update’s biggest changes are more behind-the-scenes to make coding easier moving forward, allowing the company to patch in new features more quickly. Steam has also gotten a few spots of refreshed UI and The Game Overview, which is a ‘one-stop shop’ that lets players see everything going on with the game they’ve played including news, guides and achievements. You can also take more detailed screenshots now, and Steam Client notifications are ‘more useful’ with less spammy notifications.
You can check out more details on the Steam Client Beta update here.
