Valve’s Steam Chat gets its own iOS and Android apps

A little under a year ago, Valve released a big overhaul for the chat features built into its Steam game store/launcher. Focusing on modern day chat conveniences like better group chats and embedded media (GIFs!), some saw it as a move to hopefully keep a few more users from heading for Discord - which, as it just so happened, was weeks away from poking around Valve's turf with a game store of their own.

Today, Steam Chat goes mobile. Valve has just announced that dedicated Steam Chat apps are available immediately on both iOS and and Android.

The new mobile client will let you see who's online, who's playing what, add new Steam friends, and, of course, chat (both one-on-one, or in groups.) Don't want your phone buzzing nonstop? Valve says you can tweak notifications on a friend-by-friend, group-by-group basis.

One thing it can't do quite yet? Voice chat. Valve says it's on the way, but it didn't make it into this initial release.