Users on Steam have the ability to set there status to Offline, so that they are invisible to friends and other players. There are a few extra statuses also available, such as Online, Away, Invisible and Do Not Disturb.
Unfortunately, you can’t boot up Steam in offline mode, so you will still have to appear online for a few seconds when you first sign in.
There isn’t much difference between Invisible and Offline mode. When in Invisible mode, you can still use the chat function and see which players on your friends list are online. Whilst in Offline mode, all these features are disabled.
Steam recently updated their chat feature and friends list to a new design. So appearing offline has only changed slightly. You can see our guide for appearing offline below, whilst we have some more guides for Steam here.
Appear Offline on Steam
To start, open up the Steam client. It doesn’t matter which page you are on. In the bottom right, you can see a button labelled ‘Friends & Chat’. Click it.
You will see a window like the one below. You will see your profile, your favourites and then your normal friends list. This is all a part of Steams new chat system. Next to your profile name, press the little arrow.
You can choose a status for your profile. Invisible or Offline is the best choice. You will appear offline to friends and other players. Although if you’re in invisible mode, you can still chat to them and invite them to games.
