For a long time, the Steam mobile app was a necessary evil, needed in order to log in anywhere you went. Now, a new Steam app rebuild has finally launched on Android, bringing along a totally new design and a multitude of improvements.
While Steam is still an extremely popular platform for game shopping and gaming itself, its mobile app hasn’t seen an updated look in years. That ends today as Steam is releasing a limited mobile app beta for users to jump in and put to work.
Valve Software’s official Steam client for Android devices has been available in beta since last week. Today, the stable 1.0 version was released on Android Market. You will need a Steam account to use the app that lets you chat and participate in the Steam community from your phone or tablet, get heads-ups on discounts, browse profiles, access latest news and more. Note that the program does not enable mobile purchasing of Steam games nor does it facilitate gaming on the go.
Steam is a digital rights-managed distribution system for cross-platform delivery of games, but it also provides support for features such as multiplayer, automatic updates and in-game voice and video chat. The Android version of mobile Steam client arrived on the heels of last week’s release of a companion Steam app for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch.