There was a series of upgrades for the Steam Deck in the past 2 days, and instead of reporting them one by one, here’s a combined look at what they actually improved, organized in categories. Note that most of them are focused on improving the typing experience on the Steam Deck, both in the Steam client and in Desktop Mode.

UI Improvements

• Added dual trackpad typing support to onscreen keyboard

• Added a Calibration and Advanced Settings screen with options for:

  Adjusting deadzones for the left and right Joysticks Adjusting haptic strength for left and right Trackpads Joysticks and other sensors on external gamepads

• Removed display of ‘B’ back button in Overlay Quick Access Menu

• Fixed onscreen keyboard input issues when connecting to public WiFi captive portals

• Keyboard input is now sent on trackpad click down, instead of up, which should improve accuracy for fast trackpad typists

• Made the default keyboard theme “pressed” key state more noticeable

• Removed two second latency hiding trackpad cursors when the trackpads are no longer in use

Steam client Improvements

• Added Family Sharing status to game details page. Borrowers will see whose library they are borrowing from, and lenders will see a message if their library is currently in use by a borrower.
• Updated network connection flow to connect without re-prompting for a known password
• Improved performance downloading library images after logging in, leading to less stuttering
• Fixed issue where Chrome wouldn’t install from the non-Steam section of the Library
• Fixed issue where transcoded video/audio was re-downloaded on a driver change
• Fixed some missing localization in the controller configurator

Desktop Mode Improvements

• Added game mode onscreen keyboard to Desktop mode
• Active keyboard theme is now loaded in desktop mode
• Pressing R2/Enter no longer dismisses the keyboard in Desktop mode
• Fixed issue with Steam Client on Desktop scaling when the standalone keyboard is shown

Having a more usable keyboard is an essential aspect to make the Steam Deck a more versatile device without requiring the connectiong on a physical keyboard or a ssh connection for every little management task in the Desktop mode. Glad to see Valve supporting this kind of use cases as well.