When did Steam start auto scheduling game update downloads?

[City Builder]

For a short while now I've noticed that in my download queue, it shows some games being scheduled for update at some specific time (for example, dont starve together is scheduled to download it's updated at 9:09pm this evening, and Dwelvers was scheduled to download at 7:58pm this evening.

I have not placed any restrictions in Steam on when to download so why is it now scheduling games for download instead of automatically starting the download when I fire up my computer like it's always done in the past?

Thanks

[wuddih]

since 1-2 years.

[City Builder]

Wow, I'm so unobservent then.

[Ledow]

Yes, for a very long time.

I believe it reduces the load on the local servers, so they can push updates at non-peak times rather than overloading at peak hours for things you don't particularly NEED updating immediately.

If you double-click to play the game, it tries to update immediately, so it doesn't affect anything from a user perspective. But if you do leave your computer on, it's better for it to schedule at odd hours so they can spread the load somewhat without affecting you.