Steam Friends Chat interface Goes black during voice call [fixed?]

[NolamiAmada]

Whenever i attempt to enter a call with a friend their name in the top bar goes big and grey until they accept, and the entire chat window turns into a black box that cannot be interacted with in any way besides ending it in task manager

os: windows 10
graphics card: nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

steps to reproduce:

open steam
sign into friends network
right click and "start voice call" with a friend OR enter into a voice channel in a group chat

expected behavior:

steam chat interface should remain visible and interactable, messages can still be typed and sent

behavior:

steam chat interface turns into a black box that cannot be interacted with, call functions as normal, but no message can be typed until you sign out of friends network and back in


updated behavior: chat window no longer goes black, however the names of every friend you have an open chat becomes [user] would like to chat, or is chatting with [user] in big grey text that overlaps and makes the names impossible to read, as well as covering up the colour so everyone looks offline

[Dangerous-Boy]

once I start voice chat, the chat interface goes black.

[Hamrat Gaming]

I have tried all the tricks to fix this had the issue now I updated to windows 11, I found a way around it, do a voice chat close the window ( right button) and then u can open another chat window and it works, but yes this is a pain in the ass, BETA version and Standard Versions Are Doing This

[Seiko]

I have the same issue, as soon as I enter voice chat any chat window turns black and each chat window I open is black. When I exit voice chat the chat window is fixed.

[WΛRMΩNGΞR]

I can confirm this, both in windows 7 and 10, as well as another computer in the house. What happened?

[Homo Ludens]

+1

[Bwnz]

Same issue here, Win10 x64. Was working fine last week.

[Homo Ludens]

Originally posted by Bwnz:

Same issue here, Win10 x64. Was working fine last week.

Win10 x64 too, was working fine yesterday for me

[WΛRMΩNGΞR]

I opened up a support ticket, but I feel like I'm just banging my head against and empty wall. In regards to VALVE. It seems like the lights are always on but nobody's ever home.

[TonyG]

I get the error message whenever i try to start a voice chat:

"Error Reference: Chat_7075780_bb4d61253a91bfe
Cannot read property "display_name" of undefined"

Except this message, the chat window is completly black.

Tried it at different pc's. If i start Steam via Browser i dont get this message but i cant connect to the voice chat either. Looks like a timeout in the Browser window after a few minutes.
Yesterday evening i hadn't had any problems. Did no Hard- or Software changes.

No help from the Support.

[rayn87]

Same here.
I thought was a W11 issue, so i reinstalled W10, but it didn't solve.

[Bystander]

Same problem for myself and 2 friends. Started today for all 3 of us, one of us tried moving to a different computer, same problem.

Friends and Chat is fine, groups open fine, but if you connect to a voice channel the box goes entirely black and non interactive. Stays black if you close it and re-open, but if you leave chat, close it and reopen it's fine again. Text works ok, just voice chat breaks it.

Individual voice chats work ok.

[Helmut]

same problem for me

[✠UK_SPAWN✠]

same issue.

[-=(Med)=- MartinSK44]

same problem for me. really annoying

[StJohnny22]

Same here. I've rolled back windows updates, graphics drivers, reinstalled steam. Nothing.
I did get that error mentioned above on the black screen once but can't recreate the issue now. I'm on Windows 10 btw.