If anyone else finds Steam’s desktop chat client a bit unreliable on Linux—sluggish UI, finicky context menus, emoji pickers that vanish when you try to click them—there’s a solid alternative worth knowing about.
You can use Steam’s web-based chat directly in your browser at:
https://steamcommunity.com/chat/
Just log in and everything works noticeably smoother: menus behave, emojis are clickable, and the interface feels much more responsive. The only catch is you’ll need to keep a browser tab open for it.
Hope this helps anyone else looking for a more stable Steam chat experience.
Never had an issue. You may want to turn off all of the bells and whistles that cause it to spike CPU when idle though, that might help.
Settings > Library > Enable ‘Low Performance Mode’
Nice tip! This just fixed all the sluggishness that I’ve had for ages.