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How to appear offline on Steam
Steam is one of those platforms that can be tough to handle if you haven’t set your status right. If you have a big friends list, you will get many notifications, including messages and game invites. The best option here is to set your status as Offline or Invisible. Here’s how to appear offline on Steam.
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QUICK ANSWER
To appear offline on Steam, click Friends on the menu bar at the top, and click Offline in the drop-down menu. If you want to appear offline but get all notifications as usual, you can click Invisible in the drop-down menu instead.
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How to go offline on Steam
Open Steam and click Friends on the menu bar at the top. In the dropdown menu, you’ll get the option to set your status. Click Offline to go offline on Steam.
What’s the difference between offline and invisible on Steam?
There’s also an option to go Invisible in the Friends drop-down menu. The Offline mode takes you truly offline, and you won’t get any notifications, messages, and such. The Invisible mode is a way to appear offline to your friends, while actually being online and getting all notifications and other online functionality.
If you prefer to only appear offline, you can use the same method above to go invisible, by clicking Invisible instead of Offline in the drop-down menu.
Want even more privacy? You can also hide the Steam games you don’t want others to know are in your library. This is easy to do – hit the gear icon, then Manage, then Hide this game – and it can keep nosey eyes off of the more obscure parts of your library.
Read more: How to run Steam on Chromebook computers