How to appear offline on Steam

Dealing with Steam notifications can get overwhelming, especially with a large friends list. If you’re tired of constant messages and game invites, you can always hide specific games from them, or simply set your status as Offline or Invisible. This guide will show you the straightforward steps to take control of your status. We’ll also break down the difference between being offline and invisible on Steam.

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 deferent between offline and invisible is:

• 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.

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