Steam Broadcasting, a feature that was rolled out to all Beta Steam Client users back in December of 2014, has now been made available to all Steam Users. That means that as long as you have the Steam Client, and have installed the latest update, you are able to start broadcasting gameplay right now!
If this is the first you're hearing of this feature, here's the rundown: When you're playing a game and someone starts watching, you automatically start broadcasting and when you end the game - so does your broadcast! You can adjust settings (seen below) to allow only certain people, or everyone to watch your gameplay - which shows your broadcast in that particular game's broadcasting hub.
The one major downside to the new feature at the moment is the inability to watch streams without logging into Steam. While you can watch streams both in the Steam client and a browser, you must log into Steam in order to do so, adding a barrier for people who don't have a Steam account. Once logged in though, you can check out all broadcasts under the Community tab to watch anyone who has their privacy set to "Anyone".
While the broadcasting feature is easily the biggest feature in the new Steam update, the new frames-per second overlay (which displays your FPS for the game you're playing) is also now available to the regular client. The remaining majority of the update is bug fixes and tweaks, and you can find the full list of updates here.
Adding this feature adds a wealth of new possibilities for Steam users, such as the ability to watch your friend play a game privately or invite a friend to watch your game and coach you through a particularly difficult spot in a game. Steam Broadcasting is an addition that many users are happy about, but still begs the question of future plans for and whether or not it will evolve into something akin to Twitch or Hitbox and allow external shareability for people outside of Steam to watch.
What do you think of the new Steam Broadcasting feature? Have you used it?
