"Chat" and "Friends" wont open

[zaphodikus]

Last few days I have to keep on restarting the steam client before the chat app will open.
It's not cricket guys - the profile buttons on peoples profiles has been doing the same thing, but weirdly different I have to click on peoples profile quick menu many times and it sometimes works.

Is there another way to launch the chat app except through this client's menus which seem to be erratic on my machine?

[Carolynne]

You can also open friendlist by right-clicking Steam on your taskbar and selecting "Friends" to open the friendlist.

Right-click Steam on your system tray icon and selecting "Friends" is another way as well.


You can also launch chat through Steam in a browser. You don't need the website open either, the chat opens as its own window.

When in https://store.steampowered.com, click the envelope icon by top right (the notifications button) between the grey Install Steam button and your username.

Select 0 unread chat messages, or whichever number shows there for you.
That will open the friendlist window with an adjacent chat space. The chat in there functions the same way as the chat in Steam client.

[zaphodikus]

Hmmm. I'll try that, thanks. That works better.

Oh I just noticed another bizairre reason this client has never had a software tester work on it...

The browser mail menu has "chat" always visible even with 0 chat messages, while the native client auto-hides the Mail/chat menu option. Feels like a workaround, for a rather glitchy UX.

[Carolynne]

I thought it'd have been nice too, especially since most time when you do have unread chat messages and press it, it doesn't just open the friend that sent you the unread chat message, but a bunch of chat tabs from the last few hours of the people you had spoken to appears as well.

So you'd end up getting a chat window with bunch of chat tabs from different friends that you chatted with recently rather than just the relevant one.

It would've made a nice quick access in case you accidentally closed the whole chat window rather than a single tab, that button would've just restored the chat window from remembering your recent chat windows.

But that'd be too logical, and that's too much of number three for Valve!

[zaphodikus]

LOL yeah. I had that too. chatted with someone, could not remember their name 3 days later, and well, no way to guess who it was since they changed their avatar already.

It does force you to pay attention at least :-) cheers for the tip.

[Carolynne]

Not necessarily! There's a funny little page that crams all your sent/recieved chat messages all in one batch in this page:

https://help.steampowered.com/en/login/?redir=%2Fen%2Faccountdata%2FGetFriendMessagesLog

But it's not very reliable, really crams everything in there, ordered by timestamps regardless of whom.
Still worth to know about it in the very least!

And you're welcome, dear.

[zaphodikus]

That is totally sweet. Um, you should write a guide on this stuff. Were you a MMO or social network moderator in a past life by any chance?

[Carolynne]

Haha, I think there's plentiful guides about this stuff out there already, they're just hard to find, buried amongst all the silly and nonsensical guides!

I've been both admin and moderator for plentiful of games and communities over the years!
But as of lately I've grown fondness to living in sloth.