Like any other modern app, Steam Client consistently wants you to use the platform. They tried to bring you back by sending a bunch of notifications, from game updates, changes, new releases, or just letting you know that a friend from your neighborhood just played a certain game.
While these notifications can help us stay informed on a particular game, unfortunately, they come a bit too often. Eating up our focus and attention while doing productive work. Therefore, it’s time to take a look at notification settings on Steam and how we can control them.
There are a few types of notifications on Steam. In this article, I will show you how to disable all of them so they would never appear again, even when you are playing.
Table of Contents
#1 How to turn off Steam notifications
1. First, launch Steam Client via the system tray. You may also launch it normally from a shortcut.
2. Then, navigate to Steam > Settings.
3. On the left menu, go to In-Game.
4. Then disable the checks on Display a notification and Play a sound.
5. Next, enter Interface.
6. Uncheck the box that says Notify me about additions or changes to my games, new releases, and upcoming releases.
7. After that, click Music.
8. Turn off notifications When a new track begins. Then click OK.
#2 How to turn off Steam Friends notifications
1. Launch Steam Client, then click Friends & Chat.
2. Hit the Settings icon.
3. Locate the Notifications menu.
4. Turn off all notifications and close the window.
After these new settings are applied, most of the Steam notifications will no longer show up in the future. However, achievement and progress notifications may still appear. If you want to disable that, check out the guide below.
#3 How to disable achievement notifications
The in-game achievement notification is a bit tricky to turn off as it needs the Game Overlay to be disabled as well. If you are willing to sacrifice the feature, you may go to Steam > Settings > In-Game and then uncheck the Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game box.
Alternatively, Steam Overlay can be disabled for a specific game. All you need to do is go to Library, then right-click on a game and click Properties. Under the General menu, clear the check box from Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.
So far, this is the only way to turn off achievement notifications. You may miss some quite useful features from Steam Overlay, but that’s the kind of sacrifice needed to enjoy a distraction-free gaming experience.
Additionally, I highly suggested you stop Steam from running in the background, especially when there is no game being played. This would save additional resources, save bandwidth, and perhaps helps you focus on a more important task.
