Where Steam notifications live and how to find them

Steam sends notifications through three separate channels: the Steam client itself (the pop-up boxes that appear on your screen), your email inbox, and your phone if you have the Steam mobile app installed. To turn them off, you need to know which ones are bothering you, because the controls for each are in different places.

The main control panel is in the Steam client. Open Steam, click your username in the top right corner, then select Settings. From there, go to Notifications — this is where you'll find most of what you need. But Steam also sends emails separately, and those have their own settings buried in your account page on the Steam website. The mobile app has yet another set of controls inside the app itself.

Key Takeaways

  • Steam notifications come through three channels — the client pop-ups, email, and the mobile app — and each has separate controls you need to find.
  • In the Steam client, go to Settings > Notifications to turn off alerts about friends, chat messages, items in your inventory, and game updates.
  • Email notifications are controlled on the Steam website under Account > Preferences, not in the client itself.
  • The mobile app has its own notification settings in the app itself, separate from both the client and the website.
  • You can turn off notifications for specific games while keeping them on for friends and chat, or vice versa — the controls let you pick and choose.

Turning off notifications in the Steam client

Open Steam and log in. Click your username in the top right corner and select Settings. On the left side, click Notifications. You'll see a list of notification types with toggle switches next to each one.

The main categories are: Friends (when friends come online or send you messages), Chat (incoming messages in Steam chat), Items (when you receive items, badges, or trading cards), Game Updates (when games you own have updates available), and News (announcements from Steam itself). Toggle off any category you don't want to see. You can also adjust the volume of notification sounds at the bottom of this same panel if you want to keep them but make them quieter.

If you want to keep notifications on overall but silence them for one specific game, you can do that too. Go to your Library, right-click the game, select Properties, then Notifications, and toggle off alerts for that game alone. This is useful if one game sends constant update notifications but you want to stay notified about others.

Stopping email notifications from Steam

Email notifications are controlled separately from the client. Go to steamcommunity.com and log in. Click your username in the top right, then select Account details. On the left side, click Preferences.

Scroll down to the Email Preferences section. You'll see checkboxes for different types of emails: product updates, news, special offers, and community activity. Uncheck any boxes for emails you don't want to receive. This controls what Steam sends to your inbox, independent of what pops up in the client itself. You can turn off all of them, or keep some and disable others — the choice is yours.

Disabling notifications on the Steam mobile app

If you have the Steam mobile app on your phone, it has its own notification settings. Open the app and tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the bottom right. Go to Settings, then Notifications. From there you can toggle off push notifications entirely, or keep them on but disable specific types like friends, chat, or trade offers.

On iPhone, you can also control Steam notifications through the phone's built-in settings. Go to Settings > Notifications, find Steam in the list, and toggle off notifications at the system level. Android users can do the same through Settings > Apps > Steam > Notifications. This gives you a second layer of control if you want to block the app's notifications at the operating system level.

What happens when you turn notifications off

Turning off a notification type doesn't delete anything or change how the game works. Friends can still message you — you just won't get a pop-up or sound when they do. You can still see unread messages when you open Steam. Game updates will still read automatically if you have that setting enabled, but you won't be alerted about them. Items will still arrive in your inventory; you just won't be notified the moment they do.

The only thing that changes is whether Steam interrupts you. Your account, your games, and your items remain exactly the same. Nothing is lost or hidden from you permanently — you're just choosing not to be interrupted by alerts.

Turning notifications back on if you change your mind

If you turn off notifications and later decide you want them back, the process is identical — just toggle the switches back on. Go to Settings > Notifications in the client, or Account > Preferences on the website, and re-enable whatever you turned off. There's no penalty for changing your mind, and you can do it as many times as you want.

Your settings are saved to your Steam account, so they'll stay the same across devices unless you change them again. If you use Steam on multiple computers, the notification settings you change in the client will explore to all of them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will turning off notifications stop me from seeing messages from friends?

No. Turning off chat notifications means you won't get a pop-up or sound when a message arrives, but the message will still be there when you open Steam. You'll see it in your chat list — you just won't be interrupted by an alert.

Can I turn off notifications for one friend but keep them on for others?

Not through Steam's built-in settings. You can only turn off notifications by category (all friends, all chat, etc.). If you want to mute one specific person, you can right-click their name in your friends list and select Mute, which silences their messages without blocking them.

What if I only want notifications for game updates, not for anything else?

Go to Settings > Notifications in the client and toggle off Friends, Chat, Items, and News. Leave only Game Updates turned on. You can mix and match any combination you want — there's no rule about which notifications have to stay on together.

Do I need to turn off notifications in all three places, or just one?

It depends on what's bothering you. If pop-ups on your screen are the problem, turn them off in the client. If it's emails cluttering your inbox, turn those off on the website. If it's your phone buzzing, turn them off in the mobile app. You can control each channel separately, so you only need to change the ones that are actually interrupting you.

Will Steam re-enable notifications if I update the app?

No. Your notification settings stay the same after updates. Steam doesn't reset them unless you uninstall and reinstall the entire process, which is rare.