Option to hide play history in client (time played / last played / recently played)

[Rn]

Hi everyone,

Browsing through the Steam client and the internet, I could not find a way to hide time played metrics from both the standard Steam client as well as big picture mode.

Therefore I would like to request an optional feature, that would basically be a tick box that would hide the time played/last played and recently played metrics from my local Steam client. Particularly in big picture mode. I do not want to see this information myself and I do not want the people I invite to my living room to have this information either. A seemingly simple and optional change in the Steam client will allow me to use all the games and hardware I purchased to the fullest extent once again.

The way Steam currently shows these personal metrics set up is really putting me off from using my Steam games, Steam controller and Steam link in my living room with friends altogether. Using offline mode is not an option, because 1) then I cannot play games online 2) many offline games have DRM that require Steam to be online and 3) offline mode gives the user a popup harassment on computer boot-up. The metrics are so in your face that they are a deal-breaker to me and I looked for alternatives to Steam. Unfortunately I learned that I am tied to Steam for the game purchases I have already made.


Users, please share whether you have positive, neutral or even negative sentiment regarding this optional feature request. I feel like this is something many people already want; or would you say I am a single person making ridiculous requests? Devs, I would love to hear if such a feature is already planned for or perhaps already has been discussed but dismissed.

I am open to discussion and will be sure to keep track of this topic.
Thank you for reading.

Best,
R.






P.S.
I understand that among other reasons, Steam tracks these metrics for marketing and refund purposes. I would like to leave any discussion regarding online privacy/data mining and total removal of these metrics from Steam servers out of the current discussion (although truthfully I'd rather see that Steam does not collect and use this privacy sensitive data since they are already making money on all the games we purchase). I would like to keep this topic dedicated to the feature request: an optional tick box to hide time played metrics from showing up on my local Steam and big picture mode.

To emphasize that I do not feel alone in this feature request: I can find many topics discussing this issue. Strangely, in many of these topics the feature request gets dismissed as not wanted by many customers (which cannot be true given the number of topics) or the topic starter gets attacked as to why he would want to hide these types of metrics (to me this seems like an obvious privacy hazard, apparently to some other people it is not).
Here are some examples:

2008:
https://forums.beyondunreal.com/threads/turning-off-steam-gameplay-time-stats.175738/
2012:
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/882962139163491680/?l=dutch
2013:
https://www.google.nl/search?q=steam+hide+time+played&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=egbFWZGGJ42h4gSUgoygBQ
http://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?t=101699
2014:
https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/172790/is-it-possible-to-clear-or-hide-steams-hours-played-stat
2015:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/496881136924940782/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/33408x/hiding_played_hours_privacy_setting/
https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/916373-pc/71626676
https://www.thetechgame.com/Archives/t=7398342/steam-hide-hours.html
https://www.sythe.org/threads/is-there-a-way-to-turn-off-time-played-on-steam/
2016:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/5j7bt8/is_there_a_way_to_delete_games_hours_played_record/
https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1524901
2017:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/6a53im/are_there_any_methods_to_hide_time_played_other/

[Start_Running]

There is a way. Set your account private.
[EDIT]
Apologies there OP. Try just playing via the shortcuts on desktop, or using a custom client skin.

[laff]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

There is a way. Set your account private.

You didn't read the post.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by laff:

Originally posted by Start_Running:

There is a way. Set your account private.

You didn't read the post.

I did. and again. YOu can set yourself private. Then only you are aware of such. And no I'm afraid asking people to ignore the counter arguments is not going to work. This is a discussion forum, not an echo chamber..

As for saying steam already makes mony selling games.. welkl that's the joke, those metrics are part of how they make that money. If you use desktop or windows apps shortcuts to launch your games then even you never bneed be aware of your hours spent.

Perhaps you could elaborate why setting your profile private is not enough?

[laff]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Originally posted by laff:

You didn't read the post.

I did. and again. YOu can set yourself private. Then only you are aware of such. And no I'm afraid asking people to ignore the counter arguments is not going to work. This is a discussion forum, not an echo chamber..

You should really stop and read the entire post before spamming this thread further. He's not talking about others seeing his stats online, he's talking about seeing his own stats through his client.

I've seen you post in this forum a lot, but not a whole lot of constructive comments come from you. You're clearly the one who wants an echo chamber, searching for arguments where there are none. This is simply a suggestion, a simple request, and you come in here looking to start arguments because you didn't even read the post. Why don't you grow up?

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Perhaps you could elaborate why setting your profile private is not enough?

Because that's not a solution at all to what is requested.

Originally posted by Rn:

Therefore I would like to request an optional feature, that would basically be a tick box that would hide the time played/last played and recently played metrics from my local Steam client. Particularly in big picture mode. I do not want to see this information myself and I do not want the people I invite to my living room to have this information either. A seemingly simple and optional change in the Steam client will allow me to use all the games and hardware I purchased to the fullest extent once again.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by laff:

Originally posted by Start_Running:

I did. and again. YOu can set yourself private. Then only you are aware of such. And no I'm afraid asking people to ignore the counter arguments is not going to work. This is a discussion forum, not an echo chamber..

You should really stop and read the entire post before spamming this thread further. He's not talking about others seeing his stats online, he's talking about seeing his own stats through his client.

That's actually even simpler and I already gave a solution to that. Don't use the client. Neithe client or website are needed to play the game beyond installation.

I've seen you post in this forum a lot, but not a whole lot of constructive comments come from you. You're clearly the one who wants an echo chamber, searching for arguments where there are none. This is simply a suggestion, a simple request, and you come in here looking to start arguments because you didn't even read the post. Why don't you grow up?

You devoted a whole paragraphg to me. I'm flattered and really let's take a look at this. I at least found a solution to half his problem that can be applied now. You could have, if you spent less time going on about me, have perhaps suggested the use of certain skins . There's likely one out there that hides it.

Perhaps you could have looked that up and brought something to the board. But nope, you instead wasted a whole paragraph on my attitude while actually contributing nothing in the way of a solution.

So which do you want to be The pot or the kettle in this equation? I'm not particular so I'll let you have the pick. Will admit I jumped the gun here, partly because it's even more baffling to me than hiding one's playtime than other. I mean the play time is practically in Squint-o-vision font and while prior to the refund policy I would have said it's not a bad idea, now with that refund feature I can see alot of grief and rage from people toggling that switch, forgetting it and losing track of their play time and thusly missing their refund window.

As said there are probably client skins out there that will further minimize, change the location of or altogether hide the play time from one's own personal view . As for the website. Not sure about how that work, maybe drop a suggestion to the guys doing enhanced steam.

[laff]

You just can't help yourself, can you?

[Start_Running]

n

Originally posted by laff:

You just can't help yourself, can you?

Still not seeing any actual suggestions to the OP's problem, or fixes. Just a lot of focus on me, which I will admit is a little flattering.

[anto_capone]

A feature like this would be nice to have. =)

Originally posted by 󠀡:

This has be brought up multiple times before in other https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/620703493328179543/?ctp=83"hiding your activity from friends" and other type topics,

Be advised, there is a certain poster who takes pleasure in trolling suggestion threads on this topic (you can guess who). That topic you quoted has now been closed so expect extra attention with this one now...

[999999999]

Users can still follow you and see it in their activity.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by 999999999:

Users can still follow you and see it in their activity.

Apparently the OP wants to hide the details from themselves. COrrect me if I'm wrong but there are skins that do this right? I know there are skins for example that apparently obscure your user name in BPM.

Though sorry OP I honestly don'tr see STeam implementing this now. Maybe as said, prior to the refund policy but now when keeping track of your play time can mean the difference between being able to refund or not, them including a function that would literally hide that information would be seen as, suspicious.

Skins are probably your best bet for the client as said, and as fdor the website... maybe give the people working on the Enhanced STeam browser plugin a shout about this.

It should also be noted that many games can be run directly from their exe file without the use of the steam launcher. So long as steam is still open it should still make the validity check okay but the playtime will not be recorded.

No way of knowing which games will or won't work with this. Online mUltiplayers are probably but manyt single player games do.

[Rn]

Thanks for your comments everyone!

Indeed, I'm merely requesting for an opt-out tick-box would be hiding the time played/ last played/ recently played information on the client-side only.

From the replies I gather that there is pent-up sentiment against Steams online data sharing policy, which will very likely not be resolved because it conflicts with their business model.
From this topic and sources outlined in the topic start, I see that there is also interest for this offline client-side feature request, which hopefully does not conflict with Steam's policies. Hopefully, such an opt-out could be part of the Steam client in the future.


For the moment: thanks for the suggestion about using a custom steam skin that might work for me. Hopefully such a skin or mod is available particularly for big picture mode.
An alternative solution I will now look in to is switching from Steam link to a Shield android tv box. I also learned that it is a good idea to order my games somewhere else, so that I can then make shortcuts within Steam that do not track my stats.

Thanks again all!

[Start_Running]

Ordering your games from somewhere else is a harder proposition these days. Outside GoG most other distrpos will either require you use their service or steams and I'm not sure how well running an app install for another Platform as a non-steam game works.

As I mentioned OP. prior to 2015 I would have said there was no reason for not having it. Now...yeah. Imagine if you had that feature and you turned it on. Then one day you bought a game, but after a bit you realize it's just not for you BUt oops you went over the 2 hour time limit.

Normally having the game hours displayed would be something to keep an eye on and help prevent such things but since you hid it and forgot that you hid it (not laughing, it happens to many. Hell I keep forgetting steam sells movies and TV shows because I told the store never to show me them.). Thing is you'd probably be a little miffed that you missed your refund window because you couldn't track the time you spent playing.

Unless it were an toggle switch per game (and lets face it that would be rather annoying) I don't see valve implementing such a defgault toggle for that very reason.

[ᴛᴡɪɢɢʏ ᴛᴡɪɴᴋ]

Your wish has been granted!

[Crashed]

Originally posted by Moscato:

Your wish has been granted!

By default the game library will be friends only, and this will hide in-game status from non-friends at the same time.
If you set your game library to public it will show again.

[eukaryote]

Originally posted by Rn:

Hi everyone,

Browsing through the Steam client and the internet, I could not find a way to hide time played metrics from both the standard Steam client as well as big picture mode.

Therefore I would like to request an optional feature, that would basically be a tick box that would hide the time played/last played and recently played metrics from my local Steam client. Particularly in big picture mode. I do not want to see this information myself and I do not want the people I invite to my living room to have this information either. A seemingly simple and optional change in the Steam client will allow me to use all the games and hardware I purchased to the fullest extent once again.

The way Steam currently shows these personal metrics set up is really putting me off from using my Steam games, Steam controller and Steam link in my living room with friends altogether. Using offline mode is not an option, because 1) then I cannot play games online 2) many offline games have DRM that require Steam to be online and 3) offline mode gives the user a popup harassment on computer boot-up. The metrics are so in your face that they are a deal-breaker to me and I looked for alternatives to Steam. Unfortunately I learned that I am tied to Steam for the game purchases I have already made.


Users, please share whether you have positive, neutral or even negative sentiment regarding this optional feature request. I feel like this is something many people already want; or would you say I am a single person making ridiculous requests? Devs, I would love to hear if such a feature is already planned for or perhaps already has been discussed but dismissed.

I am open to discussion and will be sure to keep track of this topic.
Thank you for reading.

Best,
R.






P.S.
I understand that among other reasons, Steam tracks these metrics for marketing and refund purposes. I would like to leave any discussion regarding online privacy/data mining and total removal of these metrics from Steam servers out of the current discussion (although truthfully I'd rather see that Steam does not collect and use this privacy sensitive data since they are already making money on all the games we purchase). I would like to keep this topic dedicated to the feature request: an optional tick box to hide time played metrics from showing up on my local Steam and big picture mode.

To emphasize that I do not feel alone in this feature request: I can find many topics discussing this issue. Strangely, in many of these topics the feature request gets dismissed as not wanted by many customers (which cannot be true given the number of topics) or the topic starter gets attacked as to why he would want to hide these types of metrics (to me this seems like an obvious privacy hazard, apparently to some other people it is not).
Here are some examples:

2008:
https://forums.beyondunreal.com/threads/turning-off-steam-gameplay-time-stats.175738/
2012:
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/882962139163491680/?l=dutch
2013:
https://www.google.nl/search?q=steam+hide+time+played&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=egbFWZGGJ42h4gSUgoygBQ
http://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?t=101699
2014:
https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/172790/is-it-possible-to-clear-or-hide-steams-hours-played-stat
2015:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/496881136924940782/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/33408x/hiding_played_hours_privacy_setting/
https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/916373-pc/71626676
https://www.thetechgame.com/Archives/t=7398342/steam-hide-hours.html
https://www.sythe.org/threads/is-there-a-way-to-turn-off-time-played-on-steam/
2016:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/5j7bt8/is_there_a_way_to_delete_games_hours_played_record/
https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1524901
2017:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/6a53im/are_there_any_methods_to_hide_time_played_other/

I realized this a very late response but this thread is the first google result at the moment when searching for "how to hide playtime in steam big picture mode" and I didn't actually see a satisfying solution so I did some digging in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\tenfoot\resource\styles\library". Toggling a few 1s to 0s in the library.css file does the trick to my satisfaction. Specifically the opacity values for the ".AppMiscHeader .DataHeader" and ".AppMiscHeader .DataValue" sections. This won't hide the last time played from the main library screen but that didn't really bother me. I haven't given it enough time to know if future steam updates will blow this away or not but if that becomes an issue, I could set the deny delete permission on that specific file. Hope this can help someone.