Steam activity status details

[The Black Hand]

I've always just kind of guessed how these things work by reading the simple descriptions, but it would be great if someone could explain in detail if there's anything I've missed or misunderstand with all the various statuses.

Online - I think this is obvious. You login and you appear "Online" to your friends and are actively using Steam. I've noticed that friends can see which game you're currently playing. Is there a way to hide this information (i.e. toggle it off or on)?

Away - I suppose this is what friends see when you select "Away" from the list. Can Steam change to this status without manually selecting it"? If so, how? Also, if you select "Away" from the list and you're actively playing a game, can your friends see that you're away and playing a specific game, or does it just show that you're away?

Invisible - This if fairly obvious. Appear offline but you're actually logged in and can send and receive chat messages. Is there anything else to it?

Snooze - I suppose this means that I'm online but not actively using Steam. How does Steam detect this exactly? What causes Steam to know when I'm not snoozing anymore?

Busy - I think I've seen this one but not sure what it means. Is this what friends see when you select "Do Not Disturb"? Can Steam change to this status automatically?

Do Not Disturb - Yes, it says that it disables all incoming chat notifications. So that's all that it does? I've noticed that it's a checkbox, so you can turn this on if you have either Online or Away selected.

Have I missed any details?

[bonzo]

Originally posted by The Black Hand:

Online - I think this is obvious. You login and you appear "Online" to your friends and are actively using Steam. I've noticed that friends can see which game you're currently playing. Is there a way to hide this information (i.e. toggle it off or on)?

If you're asking if you can appear Online but be able to play a game and not have your status update to the game you're playing and still just have it say Online, unfortunately there isn't a feature for that to be toggled currently. If you want to be able to play a game but not have your status change to that game you will either have to go Invisible or Offline.

Originally posted by The Black Hand:

Away - I suppose this is what friends see when you select "Away" from the list. Can Steam change to this status without manually selecting it"? If so, how? Also, if you select "Away" from the list and you're actively playing a game, can your friends see that you're away and playing a specific game, or does it just show that you're away?

Steam can automatically change your status to Away. If you do not touch your computer for iirc 5 minutes (you can be either in a game or just Online) your status will update to Away.

Originally posted by The Black Hand:

Invisible - This if fairly obvious. Appear offline but you're actually logged in and can send and receive chat messages. Is there anything else to it?

Yeah that's pretty much it. And like I said up above, If you wanna play a game but not have your status change to that game, you can go Invisible and your status will not change until you set yourself to a different status.

Originally posted by The Black Hand:

Snooze - I suppose this means that I'm online but not actively using Steam. How does Steam detect this exactly? What causes Steam to know when I'm not snoozing anymore?

Honestly I don't know anything about Snooze. The only statuses I've seen on Steam have been: Online, Away, Invisible, and Offline. With the added Do Not Disturb function you can enable at any time. If I had to guess I would say it functions the same as Away does.

Originally posted by The Black Hand:

Busy - I think I've seen this one but not sure what it means. Is this what friends see when you select "Do Not Disturb"? Can Steam change to this status automatically?

Same as Snooze, I don't remember ever seeing Busy as an option on Steam. If it was at one point, it would have operated the same as Do Not Disturb currently does. (disabling all chat notifications)

Originally posted by The Black Hand:

Do Not Disturb - Yes, it says that it disables all incoming chat notifications. So that's all that it does? I've noticed that it's a checkbox, so you can turn this on if you have either Online or Away selected.

Yes you got it right. With it being a checkbox you can have Do Not Disturbed enabled while your status is set to any of the other options. Additionally, if you enable Do Not Disturb and you are not Invisible, an icon will appear next to your name indicating you turned on Do Not Disturb. If you're invisible, the feature will still function but the icon will not appear next to your name since you are appearing as offline.

Technically there is also the Offline option which signs you out of friends and chat. And as you could probably guess, you'll appear offline to everyone on your friends list since you're signed out from Friends & Chat. Note that you won't be signed out of Steam as a whole, just the chat functionality.

[Heraclius Caesar]

Originally posted by bonzo:

If you're asking if you can appear Online ...

You're responding to a post from over 4 years ago, what's the point of that? You searched this old post out and wrote a lengthy reply for nothing since the thread is going to get closed for being a necro.

[Mike]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.