Disable Steamcha!. Remain offline from startup, not invisible"

[AlVee]

Okay, Steamsupport has no entry about the chatsystem.
There is no way to contact Valve/Steam.
(At least I didn't find any form to fill out, or at least an Emailadress.)

I want to deactivate Steamchat, so I can be offline and don't have Steamchat pop up when I start Steam.
The way it was before this outrageous update.

Beeing OFFLINE is NOT the SAME, as beeing INVISIBLE!

I've read some roundabouts.
Like edditing the exe commmand, or to activate the "go offline taskbar option" in the Interface settings.
Last one doesn't even work, when you click go offline, and the first one doesn't seem to work with the autostart Steam option.

Anyone's got any ideas, how we can tell Valve/Steam to go "frankly I don't care what" themselves and reimplement the option, to be offline from the startup and autostarting of Steam?

I hate this beeing forced on us.
Shoved down our throats.

I don't use any social media.
I don't practice this online exhibitionism called Facebook.
I use a private and encrypted Email server of a friend.
I use Signal, not Whatsapp, and flashed Linage on my phone.

I enjoy me royal privacy.

Any idea where I can start an online petition, they WILL NOTICE?

If you feel the same about the new chatsystem,
or have any practical answers,
please leave a comment.

Yours, Lucky_Vince.

[Ori]

I'm glad it's not only me who feels this way. They definitely need to work on this issue. I don't want everyone in my friendlist to know what I'm doing all the time. It's insane.... Please change this...

[Forcen]

They read the forums, you could also email gaben at valvesoftware.com.
I bet the popup thing will be fixed eventually.

I noticed the friends window popping up also when starting my PC, that's a bit annoying even for me who wants to be online in Steam.
Still, if I close steam while the friends window is closed then it doesn't pop up again when I start steam...
This might work across reboots, havent tested yet.

Originally posted by Hannemone:

I'm glad it's not only me who feels this way. They definitely need to work on this issue. I don't want everyone in my friendlist to know what I'm doing all the time. It's insane.... Please change this...

You can make your game details private if you want, this will hide it on your profile also: https://steamcommunity.com/my/edit/settings

Also won't invisible mode do this for you still?
Isn't the only difference between being offline and invisible is that you can see what others are doing? Or are there other differences?
So if they can stop the friends window from opening then you would have the same experience right?

[Glimmer]

Steam > Settings > Interface > Set Taskbar Preferences > place a check mark next to Offline
Right click on the Steam icon in the task bar and you should now be able to set yourself as Offline.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Alternative:
Create a shortcut to Steam (or modify an existing one) and add

-nofriendsui

to the end of the Target field. That will give you a friends list largely similar to the previous version, including the Offline status.

If you want to use the NoFriendsUI flag and have the client autostart with Windows, disable the Autostart option in Steam's Settings and then move that shortcut into

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp

Originally posted by Forcen:

I noticed the friends window popping up also when starting my PC, that's a bit annoying even for me who wants to be online in Steam.
Still, if I close steam while the friends window is closed then it doesn't pop up again when I start steam...
This might work across reboots, havent tested yet.

It has in my experience. The file controlling whether the Friend's List should be closed appears to be stored in Steam's web browser cache, so unfortunately if you clear that you will cause it to open again.

[Forcen]

Originally posted by Glimmer:

Steam > Settings > Interface > Set Taskbar Preferences > place a check mark next to Offline
Right click on the Steam icon in the task bar and you should now be able to set yourself as Offline.

Wow, that sounds like something that valve missed. Wonder how long this will work or if it's just the same thing as invisible mode except the name? I can still see my friends after all.

This prevents the friend list from opening at launch supposedly: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1762481957308771337/#c1762481957310688876

[Glimmer]

Originally posted by Forcen:

Wow, that sounds like something that valve missed. Wonder how long this will work or if it's just the same thing as invisible mode except the name? I can still see my friends after all.

Offline operates the same as it previously did from what I can tell. I'm not able to see my friends list and am given a button to Sign In. I vaguely recall some games had issues if your friends list was set to Offline, presumably Invisible would address that, but since I can't remember the which games or what exactly was wrong I can't really test.

This prevents the friend list from opening at launch supposedly: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1762481957308771337/#c1762481957310688876

Part of those steps is closing the Friend's List, which as you pointed out is enough. It's possible that there are some other issues (E.G. having an open chat causes the Friend's List to also open) but it might just be a superfluous step.

[Forcen]

The only difference for me is that instead of "invisible" is says "last online 13 min ago" for me. I can still see my friends and open chat windows.

[Glimmer]

Originally posted by Forcen:

The only difference for me is that instead of "invisible" is says "last online 13 min ago" for me. I can still see my friends and open chat windows.

Curious. I just tested on my machines, there is a difference between using the two methods I listed. Using the Set Taskbar Preferences gives the pseudo Invisible, while using the Offline mode with the NoFriendsUI version of the client is the older version of the Offline screen.

[mayer]

How to become offline guys ?
I dont see offline button anymore ..

[Forcen]

Ah, I'm in the regular client. that might explain it.

I would guess the options are basically the same for the new chat, just a thing they forgot to change.

[Glimmer]

Originally posted by mayer:

How to become offline guys ?
I dont see offline button anymore ..

I posted two different methods in post #3, but I'm feeling generous and will post a 3rd method.

Create a shortcut and use this string

steam://friends/status/offline

[Guybrush]

Yeah I also feel that being "invisible" and being "offline" in steam chat are not the same. This should be re-addressed in the next steam update for sure...