Today Steam is launching the beta of Steam Broadcasting. After the rise of the Let's Play community on YouTube and the advent of streaming platforms such as Twitch it was only a matter of time before Steam decided to offer up their own slice of that sweet streaming pie.

So here's how it works: When you see a friend in game you can now click on their name and select 'watch game' from the drop down menu. This functionality comes with a variety of privacy settings; you can choose to only allow those you invite to watch or you can choose to allow anyone to watch, which will make your broadcast visible from the hub page of whichever title you're playing. So you can show off or highlight a secret or give other players a hint on a particularly tricky level. Very cool.

To be part of the broadcasting beta, you need to opt into the Steam Client Beta. You can do this, if you haven't already, by selecting 'Settings' and then 'Account' and then by changing your 'Beta Participation' to 'Steam Beta Update'. Easy! If you're already broadcasting, you can give Steam feedback on the service here.