Most Steam users barely scratch the surface of what the platform offers. Here’s how to improve your gaming experience with features designed to boost performance, keep you connected with friends, secure your account, and more.
1 Steam Overlay
The Steam Overlay is an in-game interface that lets you access various Steam features without exiting or minimizing your game. You can chat with friends, browse the web, capture gameplay moments, and more. To enable it, go to Settings, navigate to “In-Game,” and toggle on “Enable the Steam Overlay While In-Game.”
Once activated, simply press Shift+Tab during gameplay to open the overlay and access a wide range of features without interrupting your gaming session.
2 Record Your Gameplay
Steam now includes a built-in feature for recording your gameplay. To enable it, navigate to Settings > Game Recording and choose between “Record in Background,” which starts automatically when you play, or “Record Manually,” activated by a shortcut. The default shortcut is Ctrl+F11 to start or stop recordings, but you can customize it.
Your recorded clips are saved in the folder specified under “Recordings Folder,” and you can change the default folder at any time.
3 Use the FPS Counter
Steam can show your game’s frame rate in real time, which allows you to monitor hardware performance and troubleshoot the issue to eliminate frame drops. To enable this feature, go to Settings > In-Game, open the dropdown menu next to “In-Game FPS Counter,” and choose the desired position for the counter.
For better visibility, enable the “In-Game FPS Counter High Contrast Color” toggle to make the counter stand out against your game’s background.
4 Steam Link (Remote Play)
Steam Link (Remote Play) lets you stream Steam and non-Steam games to various devices, including your TV, tablet, or smartphone. First, enable the feature in the Steam client on your host computer by navigating to Settings > Remote Play and toggling on “Enable Remote Play.” Next, download and launch the Steam Link app on your target device.
Follow the on-screen instructions to pair the target device with your host PC. When a pairing code appears, return to your host computer, select “Pair Steam Link,” and enter the code.
5 Limit Download Speeds
Downloading games while playing Steam games can lead to latency issues. To ensure smooth gameplay in online titles, you must limit download speeds. Steam makes it easy to do this. Go to Settings > Downloads, enable the “Limit Download Speed” toggle, and set your preferred speed in Kbps based on the bandwidth you want to allocate.
Also, turn off the toggle for “Allow Downloads During Gameplay” and toggle on “Throttle Downloads While Streaming” to further optimize your gaming experience.
6 Big Picture Mode
Big Picture Mode offers a console-like experience on your PC with a controller-friendly interface, making it easier to navigate Steam’s library and features on large screens. It provides quick access to your game library, friends list, and settings, making it ideal for use with a controller.
To activate it, click the monitor icon in the top-right corner, and Steam will switch to the new intuitive interface. You can easily exit it through the interface settings.
7 Steam Family Sharing
Steam Family Sharing lets you share your game library with family members. They can then play your games on their accounts without buying them again. To set it up, navigate to Settings > Family > Create or Join a Steam Family, then follow the on-screen instructions based on whether you want to share a game with others or access games shared by others.
Other users can download and play your games, but remember that only one person can play a specific game at a time unless they own it themselves.
8 Steam Guard
Steam Guard helps protect your account from unauthorized access by requiring you to verify your identity whenever you log in from a new device. You can opt to receive a code via email or use the Steam Mobile app as an authenticator to generate codes directly from your smartphone, which is the safest method.
To activate this feature, go to Settings > Security and click “Manage Steam Guard.” You can choose your preferred method for receiving the verification code from there.
9 Use Multiple Accounts
Steam allows you to use multiple accounts to keep separate lists of friends, game libraries, play history, and more. If you’re a professional gamer or streamer, you can have one account for personal gaming and another for professional gaming or streaming. Although you can add multiple accounts, you can only be logged into one account at a time.
To switch accounts, click on your profile name in the top-right corner, select “Change Account,” and enter the password for the account you wish to switch to.
10 Set a Preferred Download Region
By default, Steam connects you to the server nearest to you when downloading games or updates, ensuring fast speeds. However, if the server is crowded, your download speed may be slower than a server that’s further away. If you experience slow downloads, you can try switching to a different download region to connect to a less congested server, potentially improving your download speed.
To change your download region, go to Settings > Downloads, and select your preferred region from the dropdown menu next to “Download Region.”
11 Customize the Library Experience
If you have a slower internet connection or limited hardware resources, you can enable low-performance and low-bandwidth modes. The low-bandwidth mode turns off auto-loading of community content to reduce data usage, while the low-performance mode turns off graphical enhancements to boost library performance.
Go to Settings > Library and toggle on “Low Bandwidth Mode” and “Low Performance Mode.” You can also adjust other settings to customize your library experience further.
12 Customize the Friends and Chat Experience
Steam lets you fully customize your friends and chat experience. You can organize friends by games, hide offline friends in custom categories, condense your friends list and chat view, open a new window for incoming chats, disable animated room effects, turn off spellcheck in chat, adjust font size, modify chat filtering settings, and more.
To customize these options, open Settings and navigate to the “Friends and Chat” tab. From there, explore the available settings to make your desired adjustments.
Whether you’re new to Steam or a long-time user, using the above features can greatly improve your experience. Just got your hands on Valve’s handheld? Make sure you read our guide for new Steam Deck owners.
