It’s easier to try out new Steam features before they’re available to everyone.

Valve has confirmed it with a short announcement on Steam: “Hello! A few weeks ago, we shipped a big update to the Steam Client Beta with new features, including an updated in-game overlay, a new game notes feature, and updated notifications. We’ve been gathering feedback and making updates, and as we get closer to shipping, we could use more testing and coverage from you to ensure nothing is overlooked. We’re introducing a one-click opt-in to allow you to try all the new features and provide feedback. Once the features ship to everyone on Steam, your client will be updated to the latest public version available (automatically ending your participation in this beta.).” Valve wrote.

If you have Steam installed, click this link  to enter the beta. The notes feature will be synced across all our Steam clients, so you’ll see everything we described earlier. The client also has a new toolbar and a game overview feature. Most importantly, though, there’s a new transparent overlay in-game, and you can pin windows on our screen to stay there while you play. You can customize their opacity to, for example, watch a movie while you play or read a playthrough outline. Hardware acceleration is available on Mac and Linux in the beta client.

Spell-check functionality (toggle), game notes that can be synced to the cloud, a search function (the good old CTRL+F equivalent) in the browser, soundtrack management options, better controller configuration, and lots of bug fixes, plus many visual improvements based on feedback from beta testers, have been implemented. The search bar also feels nicer, so Valve is looking to give its almost two-decade-old client a more substantial update, which will be available on Windows 7 (due to Google’s Chrome-based browser) until the end of the year.

So Steam will soon be getting a significant overhaul for everyone, but it will only be convenient for us. Hopefully, it won’t have higher system requirements because of it.

Source: PCGamer