Why is the Steam group chat and Steam group system in general so under-utilized?

[Shaddycat]

It feels like for convenience sake, using Steams group chat feature as well as the group system in general would be preferable over say, Discord. However from what I've gathered, neither are used very well for their intended purpose, if at all. Why do you guys think this is?

[tru guy]

the group chats were made purely to rip off discord
and the job is done so much worse

[Radene]

Originally posted by hot guy named jack:

the group chats were made purely to rip off discord
and the job is done so much worse

Steam Groups were a thing before discord.

[tru guy]

not group chats

[Radene]

Originally posted by hot guy named jack:

not group chats

Sure they were. Just nobody used them back then, either.

[Shaddycat]

Originally posted by Radene:

Originally posted by hot guy named jack:

not group chats

Sure they were. Just nobody used them back then, either.

Correct. They were certainly bare bones compared to Discord and to where they are today, but they were there.

[Don Lino]

Originally posted by hot guy named jack:

the group chats were made purely to rip off discord
and the job is done so much worse

What? There were group chats before discord lol. So discord ripped them off

[tru guy]

yes they explained that.
no need to repeat

[Radene]

Originally posted by Don Lino:

Originally posted by hot guy named jack:

the group chats were made purely to rip off discord
and the job is done so much worse

What? There were group chats before discord lol. So discord ripped them off

TBH I'd more say Discord ripped off IRC.

[Don Lino]

Originally posted by Radene:

Originally posted by Don Lino:

What? There were group chats before discord lol. So discord ripped them off

TBH I'd more say Discord ripped off IRC.

They ripped off everyone. Get them boys

[Blargo]

Having tried both out, the Steam chat is lacking a few but pretty large quality-of-life features that Discord has.

For instance, mentions are severely lacking.

In Steam chat, there's no way to see how many mentions you have nor a way to search for them. You have to manually scroll back up the discussion channel to find where you were mentioned, and hope you don't accidentally scroll past it, because they're not very visually distinct from other regular messages.

In Discord, you can see how many mentions you have, since the notification is marked with a number (rather than Steam chat's '@' symbol), you can view a list of all your mentions & click on them to take you directly to the channel and timestamp it was posted in, and messages that mention you are distinctly highlighted from regular messages. Can't miss them.