New Steam Deck Beta Client Adds Quick Chat Feature And More

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March 19th was an extremely hectic day with both Crimson Desert and Death Stranding 2 releasing, as well as SteamOS' 3.8.0 preview, but a new Steam Deck Beta Client update was also pushed that I loved. We can now switch to Desktop from the login screen, opting into the Preview channel won't fail, and there's a new Quick Chat feature.

You can download the update yourself in the System Settings on the Steam Deck. Make sure your update channel is set to Beta or Preview.

Steam Deck Beta Client 3/19/26 Update Changelog:

General

• Added a setting to enable 'Switch To Desktop' in the login screen. It can be found in System Settings.
• Fixed a case where opting into the 'Preview' channel could silently fail.

Chat

• Moved Steam chat into the quick access menu, making it easier to access while in-game.
• Introduced new quick chat feature for Steam Deck and Big Picture Mode
  • When in a chat, press and hold the view button to bring up quick chat options.
  • Move thumbstick and release view button to send a quick chat.
  • Quick chats can be edited in Settings > Keyboard
• Focus will no longer jump to room effect replay buttons when scrolling through chat history
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes prevent chat history from loading when scrolling up

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