How to Turn Off Friend Notifications and Overlay on Steam

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

Written by Rain Kengly

Last Updated: February 6, 2025 Fact Checked

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• Disabling Friend Notifications
|
• Disabling Steam Overlay
|
• Video

|Show more |Show less

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".

Steps

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Disabling Friend Notifications

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1. 
   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.
2. 
   2
   Click Steam. You can find this in the top-left corner of the window. A drop-down menu will open.
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3. 
   3
   Click Settings. This will be towards the bottom of the menu. A new window will open.
4. 
   4
   Click Notifications. This will be in the left panel, underneath Security.
5. 
   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.
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Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Disabling Steam Overlay

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1. 
   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.
2. 
   2
   Click Steam. You can find this in the top-left corner of the window. A drop-down menu will open.
3. 
   3
   Click Settings. This will be towards the bottom of the menu. A new window will open.
4. 
   4
   Click In Game. This will be in the left panel, underneath Cloud.
5. 
   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.
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