New CSGO Steam Community features leak, include animated stickers

Valve seems to be planning a big update to the Steam Community functionality, and it’s likely to delight Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fans.

Data miner Pavel Djundik unearthed some files added to Steam that suggest some new features will be added soon. The first is new animated stickers for Steam Chat, while the second is a new avatar framing system.

Animated chat stickers are exactly what they sound like. Steam chat stickers function similar to those found in other messaging services such as Facebook Messenger, allowing users to send cute and fun images to one another through the client. These have largely been tied to Steam events, such as its annual holiday season sale.

The upcoming animated chat stickers adds new stickers that are animated. Several were unearthed based on CSGO, showing both the stock characters and newly added agents to the game. They show the characters performing various acts, such as hugging chickens and juggling grenades. 

Alongside this are new borders for Steam avatars. Instead of simply having a colored bar to denote whether the user is in-game, idle, or offline, avatars can be framed with a border inspired by different games.

Included are a few based on some of CSGO’s most expensive skins, such as the Akiba Accept for the AUG and the Dragon Lore AWP. It is unclear where these borders would be used, whether they would appear on Steam chat, players’ friends lists, or simply on Steam’s community profiles.

It is unclear how players would earn these accessories and whether there are other options based on other games.

It’s worth noting that files related to these features started making their way into Steam all the way back in March. It’s unknown when Valve might fully implement these features and exactly how they might be rolled out when they’re introducted publicly.

The most likely landing spot would be during the Steam Summer Sale. This happens annually in late June and continues into early July, and the event would make for a neat landing spot for these new features.