How to Turn Off Friend Notifications and Overlay on Steam

Download Article

Quickly mute "Friend is now playing" or "Friend is online" notifications on Steam

Written by Rain Kengly

Last Updated: August 15, 2024 Fact Checked

Download Article

Disabling Friend Notifications

|

Disabling Steam Overlay

|

Video

Does Steam send you notifications of when your friends go online and what games they are playing? If you don't want this "Notification Toast" to disrupt you in a game, you can easily disable it in your settings. You can also disable the Steam Overlay if it keeps popping up in-game. This wikiHow will show you how to disable all friend notifications on Steam using your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer.

Things You Should Know

To disable friend notifications on Steam, click "Steam" → "Settings" → "Notifications" → toggle off "Show Toast" and "Play Sound."
Alternatively, click the menu next to "Show Notifications Toasts…" and select "When I'm not in-game" or "Never."
To disable Steam Overlay, click "Steam" → "Settings" → "In Game". Toggle off "Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game".

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Disabling Friend Notifications

Download Article

1
Launch the Steam app. Steam is available to download on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- If you aren't already logged into your account, enter your username and password now. You can change your password if needed.
- Use this method to disable notifications from friends while you're in-game.
You can find this in the top-left corner of the window. A drop-down menu will open.

Advertisement
This will be towards the bottom of the menu. A new window will open.
This will be in the left panel, underneath Security .
5
Adjust your notifications. Underneath the Friend Notifications header, you'll see a list of options. Show Toast refers to a notification badge, while Play Sound refers to a small sound.
- Toggle off Show Toast for When a friend joins a game and When a friend comes online . If you'd rather not hear a notification sound, you can also toggle off Play Sound for these options.
- If you also want to mute notifications from messages, toggle off the options for When I receive a direct message and When I receive a chat room notification .
- Alternatively, click the drop-down menu next to Show Notification Toasts… and select Anytime , When I'm not in-game , or Never .

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Disabling Steam Overlay

Download Article

1
Launch the Steam app. If you aren't already logged into your account, enter your username and password now.
- When you have the Steam Overlay enabled , you can access Steam's community features while in-game. However, if this causes issues with your game, you can disable it. ^{[1]
  X
  Research source}
You can find this in the top-left corner of the window. A drop-down menu will open.
This will be towards the bottom of the menu. A new window will open.
This will be in the left panel, underneath Cloud .
5
Toggle off

"Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game". This is the first option at the top of the page.
- The Steam Overlay will be disabled when you're playing games .