Rich Presence

Rich Presence shows what a player is doing in your game, for example "In the main menu" or "Playing Dust (3/8)", in the Steam friends list. It also lets friends join a game from Steam.

Prerequisites

• Your own Steam App ID, see Using Your Own App ID. Rich Presence text is configured per app.

How It Works

Rich Presence is a set of key/value pairs for the local player. Steam reads a few special keys:

Key	Description
steam_display	A localization token, for example #StatusPlaying. Steam shows the localized text in the friends list.
status	Free text shown when a friend views your game info.
connect	The command line a friend's game receives when they join through Steam.
steam_player_group / steam_player_group_size	Groups players who play together, for example in the same party.

Any other key can be used as a value inside the localized text.

Step 1: Upload a Localization File

Go to Community → Rich Presence on the Steamworks partner site and upload a localization file:

"lang"
{
	"english"
	{
		"tokens"
		{
			"#StatusInMenu"   "In the main menu"
			"#StatusPlaying"  "Playing {%map%}"
		}
	}
}

{%map%} is replaced with the value of the map key.

Step 2: Set Rich Presence

Call Set Rich Presence for each key:

Key	Value
map	Dust
steam_display	#StatusPlaying

Friends now see "Playing Dust". Call Clear Rich Presence to remove all keys, for example when the player returns to the main menu before you set new ones.

Set Rich Presence returns false if the key or value is too long or if too many keys are set.

Reading a Friend's Rich Presence

1. Call Request Friend Rich Presence with the friend's Steam ID.
2. Use Get Steam Friends and bind Friend Rich Presence Update.
3. When it fires, call Get Friend Rich Presence with the friend's Steam ID and a key.

To list all keys, use Get Friend Rich Presence Key Count and Get Friend Rich Presence Key by Index.

Joining Through Steam

When a friend clicks Join Game in Steam and your game is already running, Game Rich Presence Join Requested fires on Get Steam Friends with the friend's Steam ID and the Connect string.

Sessions and the connect key

When you use SteamCore PRO sessions with Allow Join via Presence enabled, the plugin sets the connect key for you. Do not overwrite it with Set Rich Presence, or friends cannot join through Steam. See Inviting Friends.

Testing

Use Valve's Rich Presence tester while the game is running to see the keys that are set for your account.