Just recently steam stated in a news update that they will now be concentrating on bring the Steam Friends network back up on it's feet and tonight will be the official launch of the beta version.
The Steam Friends beta includes the following:
• Allow you to Add / Delete Friends
• Allow you to change your status (Online,Away,Busy,Offline)
• Allow you to edit your profile
• Allow you to invite your friends to servers
By the looks of things, the Steam Friends looks very basic and simular to "AIM Messenger" in a way. No more checkers or board games lads!. Steam will be doing on-going updates to the Steam Friends Messenger so may include more suprises in the upcoming updates.
Want Steam Friends?
• Right Click Steam.exe
• Properties
• In your target tab, Enter the following command line
• -clientbeta steam3friends -beta steam3friends
Restart your Steam.exe and updates will happen, This will then allow you to access Steam Friends